The far Right has played its part in blocking action on climate breakdown in recent years. But while we’ve learned a lot about the corporate denial machine, it’s only more recently that this part of the obstruction to a zero-carbon future has moved into the focus of the public and researchers.
Sometimes, this comes in the form of contributions that sound ridiculous. After he won the 2016 US election, it emerged that four years earlier Donald Trump had said that the “concept of global warming was created by and for the Chinese”. But skeptic arguments have tended to become more sophisticated over time, leaving behind simple denial of scientific evidence and instead, claiming to stand up for the rights (and wallets) of the ‘diligent people’ affected by policies to eliminate emissions.
For example, more than a decade ago, the extreme-Right British National Party put together a briefing paper entitled ‘Debunking Global Warming’ concerning COP15 in Copenhagen, Denmark, in December 2009.
