Kalter Wind von Rechts: Wie rechte Parteien und Akteur:innen die Klimakrise zu ihren Gunsten missbrauchen

The report analyzes how right-wing actors, particularly the AfD, leveraged the 2021 German federal election to spread climate disinformation. Based on monitoring of Facebook and Twitter from August 8 to October 3, 2021, the study found that the AfD's climate-related posts achieved significantly higher engagement than its other content and those of opposing parties. The analysis identifies a strategy of framing climate protection as a 'culture war' and a threat to lifestyles, utilizing 'denial and delay' narratives that were shared over 135,000 times. It also notes a platform divide, with positive climate messages dominating Twitter while negative narratives prevailed on Facebook.

• The AfD benefited significantly from the climate change debate compared to other parties, being the only party to question anthropogenic climate change and oppose climate protection measures.
• Climate-related posts by the AfD saw much higher engagement than the party's average content, receiving 40–237% more shares, and outperformed climate posts from other parties.
• Right-wing actors framed the climate debate as a 'culture war,' using enemy images and depicting climate protection as a threat to voters' lifestyles.
• A 'denial and delay' narrative, which presents climate change as non-existent or harmless, achieved significant reach with over 135,000 shares in the dataset.
• A secondary narrative arguing that Germany should not act on climate protection because other countries are more responsible for global CO2 emissions was shared more than 6,500 times, though it had less reach than the denial narrative.
• There was a distinct difference between social media platforms: Twitter most frequently shared messages positive toward climate protection, while Facebook shared those that categorized climate measures negatively.

APA

Matlach, P., & Janulewicz, Ł. (2021). Kalter Wind von Rechts: Wie rechte Parteien und Akteur:innen die Klimakrise zu ihren Gunsten missbrauchen. Institute for Strategic Dialogue. https://www.isdglobal.org/publication/kalter-wind-von-rechts-wie-rechte-parteien-und-akteurinnen-die-klimakrise-zu-ihren-gunsten-missbrauchen-eine-analyse-uber-falsche-fakten-feindbilder-und-desinformationsnarrative-im-umfeld-der-bunde/

Chicago

Matlach, Paula, and Łukasz Janulewicz. Kalter Wind von Rechts: Wie rechte Parteien und Akteur:innen die Klimakrise zu ihren Gunsten missbrauchen. Institute for Strategic Dialogue, 2021. https://www.isdglobal.org/publication/kalter-wind-von-rechts-wie-rechte-parteien-und-akteurinnen-die-klimakrise-zu-ihren-gunsten-missbrauchen-eine-analyse-uber-falsche-fakten-feindbilder-und-desinformationsnarrative-im-umfeld-der-bunde/.

Wikipedia

{{cite report |last1=Matlach |first1=Paula |last2=Janulewicz |first2=Łukasz |title=Kalter Wind von Rechts: Wie rechte Parteien und Akteur:innen die Klimakrise zu ihren Gunsten missbrauchen |publisher=Institute for Strategic Dialogue |date=1 December 2021 |url=https://www.isdglobal.org/publication/kalter-wind-von-rechts-wie-rechte-parteien-und-akteurinnen-die-klimakrise-zu-ihren-gunsten-missbrauchen-eine-analyse-uber-falsche-fakten-feindbilder-und-desinformationsnarrative-im-umfeld-der-bunde/ |access-date=23 October 2026 |via=Climate Insights Directory}}

BibTeX

@techreport{matlach2021kalter, author = {Matlach, Paula and Janulewicz, Łukasz}, title = {{Kalter Wind von Rechts: Wie rechte Parteien und Akteur:innen die Klimakrise zu ihren Gunsten missbrauchen}}, institution = {Institute for Strategic Dialogue}, year = {2021}, month = dec, url = {https://www.isdglobal.org/publication/kalter-wind-von-rechts-wie-rechte-parteien-und-akteurinnen-die-klimakrise-zu-ihren-gunsten-missbrauchen-eine-analyse-uber-falsche-fakten-feindbilder-und-desinformationsnarrative-im-umfeld-der-bunde/}, urldate = {2026-10-23}, note = {Indexed by Climate Insights Directory} }