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What’s the issue?

A new anti-elite revolt brewing in developed economies threatens global decarbonization and other urgent efforts to address the climate crisis. Because climate policies are an easy target for populist rhetoric, economic incentives may be more effective than rational arguments for getting ordinary citizens to back the green transition and adopt clean energy technologies. 
 

What does the research say?  

In a new working paper, Harvard Kennedy School Professor Robert Z. Lawrence and Mossavar-Rahmani Center for Business and Government fellow Edoardo Campanella explore trends and possible solutions for growing populist opposition to the clean energy transition.

They argue that the nature of climate policies—their reliance on expert knowledge and global-scale action—as well as the delayed nature of their benefits make them a perfect target for populist politicians and conspiracy theorists. The researchers also posit that factors that drove the last wave of right-wing populist electoral victories nearly a decade ago are regaining momentum, including opposition to immigration and fiscal constraints driven by high levels of public debt.

Given the depth of grievance among those who embrace populist rhetoric and current financial pressures on middle- and working-class households, the authors argue that those voters are unlikely to be swayed by rational arguments and pleas for self-sacrifice. They are more likely to change their behavior if green technologies are cheaper than fossil fuels.

Lawrence and Campanella urge that the costs of the green transition be reduced through more open trade in the short run and more innovation in the long run. They say economic strategies also need to be deployed in a coordinated way with more engaging political strategies, more emotional narratives, and more bottom-up policy approaches.