The warnings from scientists are clear: the climate catastrophe is unfolding at a rapid pace. In 2023, a temperature increase of 1.5 degrees Celsius compared to the period between 1850 and 1900 was recorded. According to scientists, this 1.5-degree threshold will be exceeded in the coming years. Extreme weather events such as prolonged droughts, storms, heavy rainfall, and floods are becoming increasingly frequent, even in Germany.
Yet, we continue to live in a society where energy sources are largely fossil-based, further fueling climate change (Diekmann, 2024).
Current climate policy measures are insufficient to curb the devastating developments. Both the general public and politicians often respond to the issue with cognitive dissonance, effectively ignoring it. The fact is, policymakers frequently fail to give this existential issue the necessary attention (Hiss, 2021).
Researchers from the Humboldt Governance Lab have explored whether extreme weather events lead European political parties to become more aware of the need for climate policy leadership and adjust their political agendas accordingly. In their 2024 study, “Extreme weather events do not increase political parties’ environmental attention,” researchers Wappenhans, Valentim, Klüver, and others investigated whether extreme weather events lead to increased environmental policy action and communication.
To do so, the research team analyzed 260,000 press releases from 68 political parties across nine EU countries, published between 2010 and 2020. The scientists focused on publications related to environmental issues. The number of press releases served as a measure of the attention politicians paid to environmental topics. The occurrence of extreme weather events was determined using data on storms, floods, wildfires, and temperature extremes.
The study’s findings are alarming: extreme weather events, which often claim many lives, do not lead to a significant increase in political parties’ attention to environmental issues. Only Green parties are an exception, as they tend to communicate more about such events during the week they occur. However, even they reduce this communication a week later.
Not only is the low frequency with which parties engage with climate policy issues concerning, but the communicative focus in the context of environmental disasters is also questionable. During extreme weather events, the primary focus is often not on the root cause—climate change—but rather on providing information aimed at offering relief to the population.
The study by the Humboldt University researchers clearly shows that European political parties do not prioritize environmental issues, even when the consequences of extreme weather events are particularly devastating.
At least, voting behavior after environmental disasters indicates that such events influence people’s decisions, albeit to a moderate extent. This behavior suggests that environmental protection is important to the public, which could incentivize parties to focus more on climate issues. The researchers suspect that politicians underestimate the potential public support for such topics. Studies on parties in the UK, for example, show that discussing climate issues can help parties attract more voters. This phenomenon could likely be applied to other European countries, although this is not the case in the US.
Nevertheless, climate policy measures in Europe remain inadequate and disheartening, especially considering that Europe is a continent where the population has been sensitized to environmental issues for decades. One would have expected a greater awareness of the need for climate policy leadership.
Sources:
Hiss, D. (2021, July). Hitze, Extremwetter und kognitive Dissonanz. In Climate Action-Psychologie der Klimakrise (pp. 141-158). Psychosozial-Verlag. (9783837978018-141.pdf).
Diekmann, A. (2024). Klimakrise. Nomos Verlagsgesellschaft mbH & Co. KG. (Einleitung – Nomos eLibrary)
