Climate Obstruction A Global Assessment

Large-scale assessments, such as those by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), have been crucial in advancing our understanding of climate change. They have affirmed that reducing greenhouse-gas emissions is urgently needed to avoid its disastrous consequences and that we possess the scientific knowledge and technical ability to meet that challenge. Citizens around the world are concerned about climate change and are willing to do something about it. What stands in the way of action?

Climate Obstruction systematically addresses the complex, organized, and well-funded set of actors who have actively resisted and undermined policy efforts to address climate change. This volume assembles nearly one hundred top experts from around the world to make the case that as climate action becomes globalized, efforts to obstruct it have become more deceptive, widespread, better funded, and dangerous. Contributors review and analyze the obstruction efforts undertaken by fossil-fuel industries, utilities, the transportation sector, agribusinesses, public-relations firms, and organizations on the political far right. They also examine the role and effects of the media in disseminating climate disinformation and misinformation, and how these narratives potentially affect public opinion on climate action. They assess how obstruction of climate action occurs across the Global South, at the subnational level, at the United Nations and in the IPCC, and in the context of climate adaptation, concluding with a discussion of legal, state, and non-state efforts to address climate obstruction.

Providing a first-of-its-kind assessment of global climate obstruction, this volume advances our understanding of efforts to slow or block policies on climate change, which can guide more effective action to prevent obstruction in the future.

This is an open access title available under the terms of a CC BY-NC-ND 4.0 International license. It is free to read on the Oxford Academic platform and offered as a free PDF download from OUP and selected open access locations.

J. Timmons Roberts is the Ittleson Professor of Environment and Society and the Executive Director of the Climate Social Science Network (CSSN) at Brown University. Roberts is the co-author or editor of fourteen books and edited volumes, and of more than one hundred articles and book chapters. He was awarded the Frederick Buttel Award for distinguished scholarship from the American Sociological Association and the International Sociological Association.

Carlos R. S. Milani is Professor of International Relations at the Institute of Social and Political Studies of the Rio de Janeiro State University. He is the director of the Interdisciplinary Observatory of Climate Change and a member of the Climate Social Science Network (CSSN) at Brown University. His latest book is Cooperación internacional al desarrollo: entre solidaridad e interés (El Colegio de México, 2023).

Jennifer Jacquet is Professor of Environmental Science and Policy at the Rosenstiel School of Marine, Atmospheric, and Earth Science at the University of Miami, and affiliated faculty with the Abess Center for Ecosystem Science and Policy. She is also Associate Research Director of the Climate Social Science Network (CSSN) at Brown University. She is the author of dozens of research articles and two books: Is Shame Necessary (Pantheon, 2015) and The Playbook (Pantheon, 2022).

Christian Downie is a Professor in the School of Regulation and Global Governance at the Australian National University, where he is the Director of the Governing Energy Transition (GET) Lab. Downie has worked as an advisor to governments and think tanks. He is the author of two books and more than forty peer-reviewed journal articles and book chapters on global climate and energy politics.

Acknowledgments
List of Figures
List of Tables
List of Contributors

1. Introduction: Understanding Obstruction of Climate Action
J. Timmons Roberts, Carlos R. S. Milani, Jennifer Jacquet, and Christian Downie

2. The Global Role of the Oil and Gas Industry in Climate Delay and Denial
Lead authors: Geoff Dembicki, Kristoffer Ekberg, and Kert Davies
Contributing authors: Ann-Kristin Bergquist, Ada Nissen, and Stella Levantesi

3. How Coal, Utilities, and Transportation Impede Climate Action
Lead authors: Jen Schneider and Gregory Trencher
Contributing authors: Peter K. Bsumek, Christian Downie, Paul K. Gellert, Giulio Mattioli, Jason Monios, Peter Newell, Jennifer Peeples, Joeri Wessling, Emily Williams, Ryan Wishart, and Ben Youriev

4. The Animal Agriculture Industry's Role in Obstructing Climate Action
Lead authors: Kathrin Lauber and Viveca Morris
Contributing authors: Jennifer Jacquet, Peter Li, Ina Moller, Silvia Secchi, Alex Wijeratna, and Melina De Bona

5. Climate Policy Obstruction on the Right and the Far Right
Lead authors: Dieter Plehwe and Justin Farrell
Contributing authors: Lucas Araldi, Jesse Callahan Bryant, William Callison, Kert Davies, Ruth E. McKie, Sotiris Mitralexis, and Alexandru Racu

6. Steering the Discourse: Legacy News, Social Media, Advertising, and Public Relations
Lead authors: Melissa Aronczyk and Maxwell Boykoff
Contributing authors: Travis G. Coan, Myanna Lahsen, Hanna E. Morris, and Chris Russill

7. Understanding the Political and Psychological Roots of Climate Misinformation and Its Impact on Public Opinion
Lead authors: Dominik A. Stecula and John Cook
Contributing authors: Arunima Krishna, Adrian Dominik Wojcik, Jean Carlos Hochsprung Miguel, Matthew Hornsey, and Salil Benegal

8. Climate Obstruction Across the Global South
Lead authors: M. Omar Faruque and Ruth E. McKie
Contributing authors: Lucas G. Christel, Claire Debucquois, Guy Edwards, Paul K. Gellert, Ricardo A. Gutierrez, Kathryn Hochstetler, Yifei Li, Carlos R. S. Milani, Elisabeth Mohle, Oluwaseun J. Oguntuase, and Jonathan R. Walz

9. Blocking Climate Action at Subnational Levels
Lead authors: Rebecca Bromley-Trujillo, Joshua A. Basseches, and Marcela Lopez-Vallejo
Contributing authors: Lucas G. Christel, Andrew B. Kirkpatrick, Simone Lucatello, and Maria Isabel Santos Lima

10. Obstruction in the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change and the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change
Lead authors: Kari De Pryck and Eduardo Viola
Contributing authors: Stefan C. Aykut, Larissa Basso, Danielle Falzon, Matias Franchini, Friederike Hartz, Hannah Hughes, Vinicius Mendes, Carlos R. S. Milani, Bruna Bosi Moreira, Geraldine Pflieger, and Emanuel Semedo

11. Obstructing Global and Local Climate Change Adaptation
Lead authors: Laura Kuhl and Stacy-ann Robinson
Contributing authors: Natalie Dietrich Jones, Danielle Falzon, Andrew Malmuth, Michael Mikulewicz, Meg Mills-Novoa, Michelle Mycoo, Meg Parsons, M. Feisal Rahman, Kimberley Anh Thomas, E. Lisa F. Schipper, and Edward Walker

12. Legal and State Efforts to Address Climate Obstruction
Lead authors: Grace Nosek, Joana Setzer, and Benjamin Franta
Contributing authors: Alyssa Johl, Lisa Benjamin, Sharon Yadin, William W. Buzbee, and Aria Kovalovich

13. Confronting Climate Obstruction: The Role of Civil Society and Non-State Actors
Lead authors: Jennie C. Stephens and Sharon Yadin
Contributing authors: Laurence L. Delina, Louise M. Fitzgerald, Francisco Garcia-Gibson, Fergus Green, Noel Healy, David J. Hess, Tariro Kamuti, Cristiana Losekann, David Michaels, Sonja Solomun, and Robin Tschoetschel

Index