A Climate Backlash: Comparing Populist Parties’ Climate Policies in Denmark, Finland, and Sweden

• Published date: 01 September 2021
• DOI: 10.1177/10704965211027748
• Author: Antto Vihma,Astrid Nonbo Andersen,Gunilla Reischl
• Date: 01 September 2021
• Subject Matter: Articles

Article

The Journal of Environment &

Development

2021, Vol. 30(3) 219–239

© The Author(s) 2021

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DOI: 10.1177/10704965211027748

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A Climate Backlash:

Comparing Populist

Parties’Climate Policies in

Denmark, Finland, and

Sweden

Antto Vihma

1

, Gunilla Reischl

2

, and

Astrid Nonbo Andersen

3

Abstract

The rise of authoritarian populism has disrupted the patterns of party competition in

many Western societies. Related to this development, the current debates in the

United States and European Union illustrate how empirical science on climate change

may become intensely politicized, and all ambitious climate policies challenged in the

contemporary political landscape. We set out an analytical framework with three ideal

types of political strategies for opposing climate policies: climate science denialism,

climate policy nationalism, and climate policy conservativism. Empirically, the article

investigates populist resistance to ambitious climate change policy in the Nordic

context, where countries have sought to assume global leadership in climate politics

and have considerable public support for climate action. In an analysis of the evolving

positions of populist parties in Denmark, Finland, and Sweden in recent elections, the

article sheds light on the interconnection between populism and climate change policy.

Keywords

Climate change, climate policy, populism, denialism, Nordic countries

1

Finnish Institute of International Affairs, Finland

2

Swedish Institute of International Affairs, Sweden

3

Danish Institute for International Studies, Denmark

Corresponding Author:

Gunilla Reischl, Swedish Institute of International Affairs, P.O. Box 27035, Drottning Kristinas v¨

ag 37,

Stockholm 102 51, Sweden.

Email: gunilla.reischl@ui.se

Introduction

The rise of populism has disrupted long-established patterns of party competition in

many Western societies. A crucially important theme is the connection between

populism and climate change, with climate change policies being described as “an ideal

target”for the populist agenda (Huber, 2020).

The intersection between climate change and populism is typically analyzed with

regard to climate change science. There is considerable academic literature on climate

change denialism and a growing body of work focusing on how such denialism features

in populist platforms and among right-wing extremists (Lockwood, 2018;McCright &

Dunlap, 2011). Emphasizing and exaggerating uncertainty about what is known about

climate change, rejecting the scientif‌ic consensus, and implying that uncertainty

justif‌ies inaction are integral parts of the denialist discourse (Lewandowsky et al., 2015;

Schmid-Petri, 2017). While the research on denialism has shed light on these phe-

nomena, this line of inquiry needs to be complemented with a broader perspective. Our

hypothesis is that many populist parties engage in potentially powerful arguments that

are not based on science denialism, at least in the conventional sense. Opponents of

ambitious climate policy have, on several instances, replaced the focus on uncertain

evidence with other strategies, such as political smear campaigns, or by arguing that

climate policies would have drastic impacts on the economy (Fisher 2019;McKie

2019).

There is a need for both conceptual and empirical work to improve our knowledge of

the broader argumentation on climate change put forward by authoritarian populists

(see also Skoglund & Stripple, 2019). We take initial steps in addressing this research

gap through the introduction of an analytical framework for various political stra tegies

aimed at opposing ambitious climate policies. The framework sets out three ideal types

of opposition, namely, climate science denialism,climate policy nationalism, and

climate policy conservativism.

Empirically, we present three short cases and analyze the populist parties in

Denmark, Finland, and Sweden. It is particularly interesting to explore the patterns of

authoritarian populism and climate policy in the Nordic context: the respective

countries have sought to assume global leadership in climate politics, they have

projected an overall “green”image with a tradition of being environmentally pio-

neering states, and they have attracted considerable public support for climate action

(see e.g., B¨

ackstrand & Kronsell, 2015). However, as previous research has shown,

climate denialism in different forms is also inf‌luential in the Nordic countries (Anshelm

& Hultman, 2014;Krange et al., 2019). In this article, we ask if climate change features

regularly in the recent political campaigns of Nordic populists, and if there is

a qualitative shift toward more assertive and/or nuanced positions on climate policy?

Are the leading populist politicians turning to science denialism, familiar from the US

debates? Alternatively, do Nordic populist parties’campaign more subtly, highlighting

nationalism and/or policy costs?

220 The Journal of Environment & Development 30(3)