Climate change and right-wing populism in the United States

ABSTRACT

In recent years, the Republican Party in the United States has taken on the characteristics of right-wing populism, especially under President Donald Trump. Like most right-wing populist parties, the party under Trump is hostile to climate mitigation. This is reflected in skepticism or rejection of climate science, opposition to multilateral institutions and agreements, aggressive domestic exploitation of fossil fuels, and depiction of climate advocates and experts as ‘elites’ set on undermining the will of ‘the people’. Among the causes of this populism are sharply growing political polarization, especially on climate and the environment, and a sorting of long-standing worldviews along party lines, leading to the election of a president with a nationalist, backward-looking agenda. This leads to drastic policy swings across administrations, among the states, and to gridlock at a national level. This stalemate will continue until one of the two competing coalitions can establish dominance nationally.

KEYWORDS:

• climate change
• populism
• polarization
• expertise
• elites

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).