Nationalising the Climate: Is the European Far-Right Turning Green?

The research challenges the assumption that European far-right parties uniformly deny climate change, highlighting a spectrum of attitudes from explicit rejection to acceptance of science. While parties like Germany's AfD maintain strong climate denial, Austria's FPÖ and Italy's Lega have moved toward accepting climate change as a reality. However, these parties use the issue to promote 'climate nationalism', rejecting supranational governance and the Paris Agreement in favor of national sovereignty and border control.

• Far-right parties in Europe do not share a uniform stance of climate denial; attitudes range from explicit rejection to an 'affirmative' support of the scientific mainstream, with some remaining 'disengaged/cautious'.
• Germany's Alternative für Deutschland (AfD) explicitly doubts human influence on the climate and views climate protection policy as a mistake and a threat to national sovereignty, advocating for 'energy autarchy' and nuclear power.
• The Austrian Freedom Party (FPÖ) has shifted from a skeptical position to declaring that 'climate change is reality and cannot be denied', though it rejects 'climate hysteria' and policies that penalize ordinary citizens or diesel drivers.
• Italy's Lega acknowledges anthropogenic climate change and proposes a transition to a sustainable economy through national funds and adaptation plans, while simultaneously rejecting the Paris Agreement and the concept of 'climate migrants'.
• The emergence of 'climate nationalism' involves far-right parties reclaiming environmental concern to strengthen nationalist projects, rejecting supranational policymaking in favor of national borders.
• The Identity and Democracy (ID) group in the European Parliament is unlikely to support resolutions aligned with the Paris Agreement because they view such frameworks as undermining national borders and furthering European integration.

APA

Machin, A., & Ruser, A. (2019). Nationalising the Climate: Is the European Far-Right Turning Green? Green European Journal. https://www.greeneuropeanjournal.eu/nationalising-the-climate-is-the-european-far-right-turning-green/

Chicago

Machin, Amanda, and Alexander Ruser. Nationalising the Climate: Is the European Far-Right Turning Green? Green European Journal, 2019. https://www.greeneuropeanjournal.eu/nationalising-the-climate-is-the-european-far-right-turning-green/.

Wikipedia

{{cite report |last1=Machin |first1=Amanda |last2=Ruser |first2=Alexander |title=Nationalising the Climate: Is the European Far-Right Turning Green? |publisher=Green European Journal |date=27 September 2019 |url=https://www.greeneuropeanjournal.eu/nationalising-the-climate-is-the-european-far-right-turning-green/ |access-date=23 October 2026 |via=Climate Insights Directory}}

BibTeX

@techreport{machin2019nationalising, author = {Machin, Amanda and Ruser, Alexander}, title = {{Nationalising the Climate: Is the European Far-Right Turning Green?}}, institution = {Green European Journal}, year = {2019}, month = sep, url = {https://www.greeneuropeanjournal.eu/nationalising-the-climate-is-the-european-far-right-turning-green/}, urldate = {2026-10-23}, note = {Indexed by Climate Insights Directory} }