Dominant counter-frames in influential climate contrarian European think tanks
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Dominant counter-frames in influential climate contrarian European think tanks Núria Almiron 1
& Maxwell Boykoff
2
& Marta Narberhaus
3
& Francisco Heras
4
Received: 26 February 2020 / Accepted: 4 August 2020/ # Springer Nature B.V. 2020
Abstract
Numerous studies to date have interrogated United States (US) think tanks—and their networks—involved in climate change countermovement (CCM). Comparatively in Europe (EU), research has been lacking. This investigation therefore attends to that gap. We conducted a frame analysis on eight most prominent contrarian think tanks in six countries and four languages in Europe over 24 years (1994–2018). We found that there has been consistent contrarian framing through think tanks in the EU regarding climate change. Yet, we found a proliferation of contrarian outputs particularly in recent years. This uptick in quantity correlates with increases in CCM activities in the US. Our content analyses showed that well-worn climate change counter-frames spread by US CCM organizations were consistently circulated by European organizations as well. Moreover, we found that, as in the US, neoliberal ideological stances stood out as the most frequently taken up by contrarian think tanks in Europe. As such, we documented that CCM tropes and activities have flowed strongly between US and EU countries. Keywords Climate change denial . Contrarian counter-movement . Europe . Think tanks . Counter-frames
1 Introduction The role of think tank networks involved in climate change contrarianism in the United States (US) has been examined by a varied number of scholars and organizations, and because of its
* Núria Almiron [email protected] Maxwell Boykoff [email protected] Marta Narberhaus [email protected] Francisco Heras [email protected] Extended author information available on the last page of the article
Climatic Change
relevance and magnitude, described as a much influential lobby that labeled the climate contrarian movement (CCM) organizations (e.g., Boykoff 2016; Farrell 2016; Brulle 2020). Analyses of the US constellation of contrarian think tanks provided by the research to date demonstrate that we face a complex phenomenon in which economic sponsorship is not the only factor in their capacity for influence. Cultural politics have contributed as well to this state of affairs. Cultural politics are dynamic and contested spaces where various actors battle to shape public understanding and engagement. They are arenas where formal climate science, policy, and politics operating at multiple scales permeate the spaces of the everyday (Boykoff 2011). Cultural politics refer to dynamic and contested processes whereby meaning is constructed and negotiated (Norgaard 2011), and involves not only the portrayals that gain traction in discourses but also those that are absent from them or silenced (Derrida 1978). Together, political contexts supporting free-market policies over recent decades have proven to be fertile ground for the seeds of the contrarian discourse; complicit mass med
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