![]() ![]() Because the focus of this paper is on U.S. In some states, elections for the Governor and legislature also took place. Presidential elections (Trump versus Biden), the American public elected all House members and one-third of Senators. Senate seats are up for election every two years. ![]() Thus, all House members are up for election every two years while by design, one-third of U.S. The House has a two-year term while the Senate has a six-year term. legislature has two chambers, the House of Representatives, and the Senate. House of Representatives, specifically the electoral appeal of the GND resolution, which had emerged as a key issue in U.S. We focus on the 2020 federal elections to the U.S. Instead of relying on opinion polls to assess public support for climate action, we investigate the electoral traction of climate issues. is an outlier in the tardy implementation of climate policy and can be viewed as a “hard case” to test the electoral appeal of climate policy proposals. It does not have a federal carbon tax or cap-and-trade policy. However, there is a strong lobby of climate deniers, doubters, and policy impeders. In the U.S., major public opinion polls suggest that a bipartisan majority supports federal action on climate issues. Broadly, as Hooghe and Marks suggest, right-wing populist groups have used climate policy to differentiate themselves from Green parties. In the Netherlands, the Farmers Defense Force organized demonstrations against the policy proposal to reduce methane emissions by decreasing protein content in cattle feed. While the European Union is a climate leader, gas taxes have motivated protests, such as the “yellow vests,” in France. Australia and Canada have elected leaders that downplay the need for climate action. Yet, a transition to a zero-emission economy faces enormous challenges because some sectors and communities benefit from a decarbonized economy while others bear transition costs. In Brazil, protecting the Amazon, the critical component of climate mitigation, is dominating the forthcoming presidential elections. ![]() ![]() During the recently concluded French Presidential elections, President Macron promised to become an environmental president. Climate issues were also salient in the 2021 German federal elections. Since the 2015 Paris Agreement, leading companies, including oil and gas companies, have pledged to pursue zero-emission targets.Ĭlimate change was a key issue in the 2019 Swiss Federal elections the Green party emerged as the fourth largest group in the Federal Council. In several countries, climate issues have acquired a social justice dimension through indigenous climate movements and Black Lives Matter. The Green New Deal (GND) proposal and the mass student strikes (Fridays for the Future) organized by Greta Thunberg have generated enthusiasm across the world, especially among young voters. voters reward legislators who advocate an ambitious climate policy agenda.ĭo climate issues have electoral traction? Climate activism and policy proposals have made headlines across countries. Unlike most western democracies, the U.S. Our analysis finds an association between Democrats’ endorsement of the GND and a 2.01 percentage point increase in their vote share, even after controlling for the 2018 vote share. The GND was introduced in the US Congress in 2019 and was endorsed by 102 of the 232 House Democrats, but not by a single Republican. Different versions of the GND policy idea have been adopted across the world. as a case study, we examine the electoral appeal of the Green New Deal (GND) legislative proposal which outlined a vision for a sustainable and equitable economy. In some countries, candidates and parties with an explicit climate agenda have done well in elections (Switzerland and Germany being recent examples) while in other cases, voters have either ignored climate issues or punished candidates/parties for their climate positions (Australia, the U.K., and Canada). Climate issues widely feature in policy discussions, but it is not clear if voters reward politicians who champion climate policies. ![]()
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