Globalizing opposition to pro-environmental institutions: The growth of counter climate change organizations around the world, 1990 to 2018

More than two decades of social scientific research has identified the growing
network of corporations, think tanks, nonprofits, and advocacy organizations that
aim to obstruct climate change action within the United States. Conventional arguments emphasize the role of
economic self-interest (e.g., wealthy and powerful corporations) in shaping the
rise of an organized “counter climate change movement” that seeks to discredit
evidence about anthropogenic climate change and derail solutions to address the
problem. In this paper, we track the
growth of counter climate change organizations around the world and emphasize
the role of reactionary cultural dynamics in driving their emergence. As climate change discourse is
infused in more areas throughout society, climate change issues become more
salient in the public sphere, generating adversarial grievances, identities,
and mobilization among oppositional groups.
Drawing on panel logistic regression models for 162-164 countries from
1990 to 2018, we find that counter climate change organizations are most likely
to develop in countries with more extensive state policies and structures
oriented toward protecting the natural environment, net of a variety of factors
that account for a country’s economic interests or its overall capacity to
produce domestic associations.<br>