Conservative climate policy: does such a thing even exist?

Mr. Weisskircher, a climate change denier, becomes US President for the second time, the climate summit is taking place in an oil state and conservatives and the right are gaining momentum in Germany and Europe. Is the international one? Climate policy at stake?
If Trump were to withdraw from the Paris Agreement again, as he did in his first term, it would be an obvious step backwards. Regardless of this, international climate policy has unfortunately rarely been a success story. Announcements at climate summits should therefore not be overestimated, because the decisions must first be implemented by governments. The key climate policy decisions are made in the nation states or, increasingly, at the EU level.

Thinking about your own country sounds extremely conservative. Why are right-wingers and conservatives still arguing?
Basically there are ideological points of contact…

…for example, the threat to national security…
… or the preservation of nature, which Christian parties in particular justify with the preservation of creation. Renewable energies promote economic growth and could increase economic independence – topics that right-wing parties also like to address. From an ideological point of view, it would be logical for these parties to stand behind it. But they often forego it.

Why?
For the AfD, for example, there are no strategic incentives to follow these arguments because all other parties already justify the expansion of renewable energy with energy independence. Instead, the AfD pursues fundamental opposition when it comes to climate policy in order to benefit from the associated uncertainties and resentments. It demonizes the energy transition and everything that is related to climate protection, such as wind and solar energy, and points to supposed consequences for the economy and the landscape. In addition, economically liberal positions play a major role in their mobilization against climate policy. Far-right parties are less likely to rely on political regulation, which is not necessarily consistent with effective climate policy.

The climate economist Ottmar Edenhofer had .
One would have to ask the question whether we don’t already have something like this.

Do we have?
Yes, because conservative parties in particular are central players in our political systems. If they are represented in parliaments and governments, they must be included in climate policy decisions, which are often driven by the left and the Greens. The end result here is often a strongly conservative climate policy.

You have to explain that.
For example, look at Joe Biden’s ‘Inflation Reduction Act’ on, the prestige project of the democratic US government. The tax relief boosts the private sector in certain areas, especially the expansion of renewable energies or electric car production. These are not social democratic approaches, but rather historically conservative ones. However, what is missing in the area of ​​climate policy, especially in Germany, is strong government investment, for example in the railways or local public transport in rural areas. Instead, people in this country are pursuing the obsession with the debt brake.

Then is China also a positive example of conservative climate policy?
Renewables and rail transport are indeed being expanded significantly in China. Nevertheless, I question the usual positive narrative. Beijing is continuing to massively expand coal production. The government also wanted to significantly reduce the country’s rapidly increasing meat consumption. That didn’t work.

But China is concerned with green transformation instead of that Climate change to deny. Are there comparable trends on the right in Europe?
The ruling Fidesz party in Hungary does not deny climate change. Nevertheless, it is not implementing any far-reaching climate policy measures. The Austrian FPÖ has had an environmental program since the 1970s and has been in favor of renewables, even if it has become increasingly climate skeptical in recent years. In Italy, the right-wing populist Lega is behind solar energy. The same applies to the national-conservative to right-wing populist Vox in Spain.

What is different with the AfD?
It rejects climate policy measures so fundamentally that it is an exception even in the right-wing party family. However, she has changed her stance a bit. In its early years it denied climate change itself. The party now more often acknowledges global warming, even if it continues to deny humans are the main cause. According to surveys, this position does not even have a clear majority within the AfD electorate.

Can right-wing ruled countries ever be an opportunity for climate protection?
Far-right parties are more likely to slow down climate policy and not take the problem seriously. For many of these parties in Europe, climate policy remains a culture war against “left-green elites”. And you only have to look at Trump’s first term in office, who also filled the American Environmental Protection Agency with climate deniers. But of course there are also parties like the FPÖ that are committed to the expansion of solar energy in the Austrian state governments.

Many worry that he undo the green transformation could. Rightly so?
Government policy is important, but by no means everything. Much is also driven by economic innovations and investment decisions by private companies. But implementing climate policy has never been easy. Even mainstream parties are reaching their limits. In Saxony, for example, the expansion of wind energy stalled, despite Green government participation. The USA relied on fracking under both Biden and Trump. Kamala Harris previously spoke out in favor of a fracking ban, but then changed her position during the election campaign against Trump.

When climate skeptics get involved in the election campaign, things become more complicated. During the 2019 state election campaigns in Brandenburg, Thuringia and Saxony, the prime ministers of the CDU, Left and SPD hardly commented on the topic of wind power – for fear of not being able to assert themselves against the AfD. Right-wing extremists can be like sand in the works, even in the opposition.

How much longer can the right avoid effective climate policy?
That’s hard to say. But as Europe faces drought and the retreat of glaciers becomes more apparent, climate-skeptical positions will become even more untenable than they already are. Sooner or later, right-wing actors will have to ask themselves how much longer they can ignore or deny all of this.