More than Markets: A Comparative Study of Nine Conservative Parties on Climate Change
Sondre Båtstrand
Cross-national comparisons of proposed policies of individual parties are an underdeveloped part of the literature on environmental politics in general and climate politics in particular. Although conservative parties are portrayed as skeptical toward adopting climate measures or even supposed to ignore climate change, this study of nine conservative electoral manifestoes nevertheless finds that most of them support climate measures, even in the form of state interventions in the market economy. Market measures are not as dominating as could be expected, but a clear finding is that available fossil reserves seem to have an influence on conservative climate politics. The U.S. Republican Party is an anomaly in denying anthropogenic climate change. Conservative parties as such are not in opposition to climate policies, but the pro-business position is evident in that conservative parties do not challenge coal or petroleum in countries with large reserves of these resources. Rugeley, Cynthia R., and John David Gerlach. 2012. “Understanding Environmental Public Opinion by Dimension: How Heuristic Processing Mitigates High Information Costs on Complex Issues.” Politics & Policy 40 (3): 444-470. http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/j.1747-1346.2012.00352.x/abstract Norman, Emma R., and Rafael Delfin. 2012. “Wizards under Uncertainty: Cognitive Biases, Threat Assessment, and Misjudgments in Policy Making.” Politics & Policy 40 (3): 369-402. http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/j.1747-1346.2012.00356.x/full Viniegra, Ibarrarán, María Eugenia, and Salimah Mónica Cossens González. 2007. “Climate Change Research and Policy in Mexico: Implications for North American Security.” Politics & Policy 35 (4): 684-701. http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/j.1747-1346.2007.00080.x/abstract Link TV. 2014. “A Conservative on Climate Change.” https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QSGiv60PBd8 Science for the Public. 2014. “Creating Public Doubt about Scientific Facts.” With Naomi Oreskes. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FaGiIhH7lAI ABC. 2011. “Why We Disagree about Climate Change.” With Mike Hulme. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LqJVHzxWQDU La comparación transnacional de las políticas propuestas por partidos individuales es un área poco desarrollada en la literatura en política ambiental, específicamente el campo de la política del cambio climático. Aunque se percibe a los partidos conservadores como escépticos en la adopción de medidas contra el cambio climático, este estudio de nueve manifiestos electorales encuentra que la mayoría de ellos apoya medidas para combatir el cambio climático, incluyendo intervenciones del estado en la economía de mercado. Como es de esperarse las intervenciones de mercado no son comúnmente favorecidas, sin embargo se encuentra una clara influencia de los niveles de reservas de combustibles fósiles en la postura conservadora sobre la política del cambio climático. El Partido Republicano de los Estados Unidos representa una anomalía al negar el cambio climático antropogénico. Los partidos conservadores por sí solos no se oponen a las políticas para combatir el cambio climático, pero si es evidente una posición en pro de la empresa privada ya que los partidos conservadores no desafían el uso de los combustibles fósiles en países con grandes reservas de éstos combustibles.
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