The politics of climate change in the UK

Abstract

Between 2006 and 2010 climate change rose rapidly up the UK political agenda and the Labour Government, with cross‐party support, introduced major changes in domestic climate and energy policy, including the landmark Climate Change Act 2008, which represented an important step toward the UK becoming a low carbon economy. Cross‐party consensus was initially sustained by the Conservative‐Liberal Democrat Coalition, before growing criticism from the political right began to turn climate change into an increasingly partisan issue, thereby weakening the commitment of David Cameron to climate leadership. The article examines the transition of climate change from low politics to high politics, assessing the role of public opinion, the media, business, environmental groups, and party competition in overcoming the obstacles to progressive climate change and energy policy. The roles of party politics and of individual political leadership are identified as critical factors in raising the profile of climate change and delivering radical policy change. The significance of the growing partisan divisions over climate change is assessed. This article is categorized under: The Carbon Economy and Climate Mitigation > Policies, Instruments, Lifestyles, Behavior Policy and Governance > National Climate Change Policy

Post-decisional logics of inaction: The influence of knowledge controversy in climate policy decision-making

“…As one observer noted, national economic interest arguments "intuitively strike a chord with quite a lot of people and decisionmakers, and businesses can forever cite them whether or not they have evidence" (UKPolicy8), and it was seen as an "unhappy coincidence of timing that the financial crisis came" (UKPolicy9) not long after the legislative adoption of the CCA. Indeed, echoing previous work (Gillard, 2016;Carter, 2014), our findings suggest that the politics of austerity loomed large over the implementation of climate policy in the UK. At the time of research, the economic impacts of implementing the UK's climate change commitments came to the fore within a wider public debate about the costs of domestic energy, with the government's climate policies "blamed" for recent rises in household energy bills (e.g.…”

Climate stories: Why do climate scientists and sceptical voices participate in the climate debate?

“…However, in the context of climate change, scepticism has become increasingly associated with public perception of a dualistic, antagonistic "climate debate" characterised by intense disagreement regarding the existence of a scientific consensus on the reality of anthropogenic climate change (Hobson & Niemeyer, 2012). Prevalent arguments include disputes regarding the legitimacy of scientific claims made by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), such as the increased level of confidence between the fourth and fifth Assessment Reports that anthropogenic greenhouse gases are the dominant cause of observed global warming since the mid-20 th century, and arguments more closely linked to national circumstances such as debates over renewable energy policies in the United Kingdom (UK) (Carter, 2014).…”

Political influences on greenhouse gas emissions from US states

“…Some approaches focus on how institutions, including laws and treaties, shape the actions of individuals, organizations and nations (9,(12)(13)(14)(15). Others emphasize the dynamics of political power (6)(7)(8)(16)(17)(18)(19)(20). As Shwom argues, who has power influences what polices, programs, and institutions are in place to moderate or exacerbate how human actions influence the environmentpolitical factors are part of what are commonly called the driving forces of environmental change (21).…”