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53 documents from Climate Social Science Network
Weak by Design: How Agribusiness Organize in Congress to Trap Environmental Reforms in Brazil and Chile
The research examines the 2012 Brazilian New Forest Code and the 2022 Chilean Water Code reform to demonstrate how economic elites intentionally design weak institutions. By analyzing legislative debates and elite interviews, the author argues that environmental degradation can result from regulations that are designed to be ineffective, even when fully enforced, regardless of whether the legislative environment is ideologically cohesive or fragmented.
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Document type: Research paper
Beyond Denial: Climate Delay Discourses and Public Opinion on Government Climate Action in the United States
The study uses a representative survey of 1,580 U.S. citizens to test 48 items based on 12 identified climate delay discourses. The authors find that while beliefs aligning with most of these discourses are widespread in the United States, certain discourses have a stronger correlation with specific policy preferences than others.
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Document type: Research paper
A Chilling Effect in a Warming World: How the Threat of SLAPPs Shapes Climate Law
The document examines the impact of Strategic Lawsuits Against Public Participation (SLAPPs) on climate change litigation (CCL) in the US. It finds that jurisdictions with anti-SLAPP protections are more likely to attract corporate CCL, suggesting that legal protections for free speech facilitate the development of climate law.
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Document type: Research paper
Russia’s Non-Western Climate Coalition: Genuine Consensus or Just Hot Air?
Russia's climate policy is characterized by a 'hydrocarbon culture' that prioritizes fossil fuel exports over mitigation. While the country has implemented domestic regulations and a pilot emissions trading scheme, there is uncertainty regarding actual greenhouse gas emission reductions. Russia intends to meet its 2060 carbon neutrality target by recalculating forest carbon absorption to offset emissions. Furthermore, the war in Ukraine and subsequent Western sanctions have severed climate diplomacy with the West, exacerbating Russian climate obstructionism.
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Document type: Research paper
Uncovering Climate Obstruction Actors and Discourses in Argentina and Brazil
The document analyzes climate obstruction in Argentina and Brazil, identifying a shift toward explicit climate denial under President Javier Milei in Argentina and a complex mix of agribusiness-led obstruction and state-driven fossil fuel expansion in Brazil. It highlights how developmentalist ideologies and economic lobbying in both nations hinder the transition to low-carbon economies, despite Brazil's recent efforts to reduce Amazonian deforestation.
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Document type: Briefing
Climate Obstruction in the UNFCCC
The document identifies 14 distinct tactics of climate obstruction used during UNFCCC negotiations, ranging from overt rejection to subtle procedural delays. It argues that obstruction is unevenly distributed, with wealthier and fossil-fuel-producing nations exercising disproportionate influence. The brief maps these tactics across negotiation stages and predicts their likely application at COP30 in areas such as the Global Goal on Adaptation, fossil fuel phase-outs, and climate finance.
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Document type: Policy brief
Researching Climate Obstruction in Authoritarian and non-Democratic Contexts
The document outlines the challenges of researching climate obstruction in restrictive political environments, focusing on participant safety, data security, and the navigation of political 'red lines'. It recommends flexible research designs, such as using snowball sampling and reframing sensitive topics, to mitigate risks associated with government surveillance and data manipulation in non-democratic states.
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Document type: Briefing
Koch and Climate Obstruction
The report details how Koch, Inc. and its executives had access to scientific warnings about global warming as early as 1972 but spent decades financing a network of nonprofits and think tanks to obstruct climate action. This was achieved by contesting climate science, running public relations campaigns to shift cultural understanding, and lobbying political elites. The document tracks this effort from early API and National Petroleum Council reports through the funding of the Competitive Enterprise Institute's 'global warming project' and the activities of Americans for Prosperity, culminating in significant policy victories during the Trump administration and continued opposition to Biden-era climate legislation.
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Document type: Report
Decades of Systematic Obstructionism: Saudi Arabia's Role in Slowing Progress in UN Climate Negotiations
The document argues that Saudi Arabia has spent three decades using procedural and substantive tactics to undermine UN climate negotiations and the IPCC scientific process. It details how Riyadh leverages consensus-based decision-making, raises opportunistic procedural objections, and contests climate science to delay the transition away from fossil fuels. The authors conclude by recommending structural changes to UN voting rules and increased transparency to combat such obstructionism.
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Document type: Research paper
Articulating System Change to Effectively and Justly Address the Climate Crisis
The authors argue that current climate proposals lack the transformative systemic change necessary to address the climate crisis. By identifying synergistic policies and programs associated with ecosocialism and degrowth, the paper aims to provide a set of specific strategies that can be promoted to challenge status quo interests and minimize warming, even if the terms 'ecosocialism' and 'degrowth' are avoided due to associated stigmas.
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Document type: Research paper
Regulatory Shaming and the Problem of Corporate Climate Obstruction
The article examines 'regulatory climate shaming'—the governmental publication of corporate climate impact data to generate public pressure—as a means to counter climate obstruction. It argues that despite the controversy surrounding public condemnation of corporate reputations, such tactics are essential for fighting climate denial and greenwashing, particularly within the fossil fuel industry.
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Document type: Research paper
Water for Whom? Desalination and the Cooptation of the Environmental Justice Frame in Southern California
Based on an ethnographic study of a desalination proposal in California, the author argues that the environmental justice frame is being co-opted to facilitate community division and support a luxury commodity, benefiting private sector interests and organized labor over grassroots community groups.
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Document type: Research paper
How can the USA and China cooperate and learn from each other to reduce greenhouse gas emissions?
The document argues that as the two largest greenhouse gas emitters, the USA and China must cooperate to mitigate climate change. It proposes specific mechanisms for collaboration, including a joint clean energy research institute, the removal of trade tariffs on renewable components, and the establishment of exchange programs between subnational governments, NGOs, and private companies to share expertise on clean energy infrastructure and regulation.
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Document type: Research paper
The Climate Advocacy Gap
The research examines the distribution of pro-climate lobbying groups in the US using 2017 data. It identifies a 'threefold climate advocacy gap,' noting that pro-climate representation is low relative to other energy interest groups, in Republican-leaning states, and in states with high total carbon emissions.
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Document type: Research paper
How Inequality Fuels Climate Change: The Climate Case for a Green New Deal
The research by CSSN Scholars Fergus Green and Noel Healy asserts that socioeconomic inequalities actively fuel climate change by driving emissions-intensive production and consumption, enabling wealthy elites to obstruct policy, and weakening public support for collective action. The authors argue that integrating carbon-centric policies into a broader program of social, economic, and democratic reforms—such as those found in Green New Deal proposals—addresses these causal mechanisms and enables more effective political strategies for decarbonization.
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Document type: Research paper
How do right-wing populist parties influence climate and renewable energy policies? Evidence from OECD countries
Analysis of OECD countries between 2007 and 2018 indicates that right-wing populist parties (RWPPs) in power have a significant negative effect on climate policy, though this effect is moderated by European Union membership and the proportionality of the electoral system. No overall significant relationship was found between RWPP representation and renewable energy policy.
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Document type: Research paper
Experts and Climate Change Politicisation: A Case Study of the Environmental Protection Agency 1983-2015
The study analyzes EPA congressional testimonies from 1983 to 2015 to examine the relationship between governmental experts and political pressure. It finds that while the frequency of climate-related advocacy statements increased over time and fluctuated based on the political context, EPA experts consistently maintained the scientific basis of climate change and advocated for action, even under administrations that denied the science.
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Document type: Case study
The U.S.-Canada Clean Electricity Relationship: Challenges and Opportunities in Policy Design and Coordination
The document argues that establishing a low-carbon electricity grid capable of handling increased demand from greening transportation, buildings, and industry is the essential foundation for the United States and Canada to meet their greenhouse gas emissions reduction targets.
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Document type: Research paper
Identifying Gaps in Climate-Litigation-Relevant Research: An Assessment from Interviews with Legal Scholars and Practitioners
The report outlines critical research needs across natural sciences, social sciences, and legal analysis to support climate litigation. Key gaps include the need for localized attribution science, investigations into corporate disinformation and internal knowledge (including non-fossil fuel industries), and the quantification of economic damages. It also emphasizes the necessity of 'translational work' to bridge the communication gap between scientists, legal practitioners, and judges, particularly regarding legally relevant timeframes and standards of evidence.
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Document type: Research paper
India and the Global Commons: A Case Study of the International Solar Alliance
The document examines India's engagement in global climate politics, specifically focusing on the International Solar Alliance (ISA) as a mechanism for promoting sustainable energy in Africa. It argues that the ISA contributes to climate change mitigation while enhancing energy security and sustainable livelihoods in sub-Saharan Africa by providing access to various forms of capital for poor communities. The text concludes by urging African policymakers to implement complementary initiatives to support the continent's population of over 1.33 billion people.
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Document type: Case study