Dr Steve Westlake

Has anyone else been dealing with some serious headline whiplash recently?

Even for those of us who follow #climate and #energy matters closely, it can be hard to know what the hell is going on!

So here's a thread to help climate communicators get a grip on how to deal with this 🧵

Politicians now talk of climate ‘pragmatism’ to delay action – new study Politicians talk about being pragmatic on climate change to avoid hard decisions.

see also this @steveclimate.bsky.social
theconversation.com/politicians-...

ICYM
#climatecrisis

Revealed: ‘Corporate capture’ of UN aviation body by industry Exclusive: Industry delegates outnumbered climate experts by 14 to one at recent ICAO meeting, thinktank says

Revealed: ‘Corporate capture’ of UN aviation body by industry

Interesting-looking new study finding that "the global aviation sector’s impact on global warming continues to increase even under the most ambitious mitigation scenarios" cell.com/one-earth/fu...

😊 Delighted to announce I'll be a Lead Author for ch.8 of @ipcc.bsky.social's Seventh Assessment Report, alongside 663 experts from 111 countries, as part of Working Group III.

Analysis by @carbonbrief.org shows increasing diversity of IPCC authorship: tinyurl.com/462pvby9

#IPCC #ClimateReport

Top public worries in the U.S. About three in ten Americans say they are “very worried” about global warming.

More Americans are very worried about climate change than are about crime.

@yaleclimatecomm.bsky.social

climatecommunication.yale.edu/publications...

Politicians now talk of climate ‘pragmatism’ to delay action – new study Politicians talk about being pragmatic on climate change to avoid hard decisions.

"Leaders across the political spectrum are protecting the fossil-fuel status quo at the very moment scientists warn we need rapid, transformative change." theconversation.com/politicians-...

Kemi Badenoch during a visit to the Port of Aberdeen on September 2. Alamy/PA/Paul Campbell Politicians now talk of climate ‘pragmatism’ to delay action – new study Published: September 5, 2025 3.28am AEST Author Steve Westlake Lecturer, Environmental Psychology, University of Bath Disclosure statement Steve Westlake and co-researcher Rebecca Willis received funding from the Centre of Climate Change and Social Transformations (CAST) to conduct this research. CAST is funded by the Economic and Social Research Council (ESRC). Westlake also received a post-doctoral fellowship from ESRC from 2023-2025. Partners University of Bath University of Bath provides funding as a member of The Conversation UK. View all partners DOI https://doi.org/10.64628/AB.6p3mqms45 Share article Print article Conservative leader Kemi Badenoch has described her plan to “maximise extraction” of the UK’s oil and gas from the North Sea as a “common sense” energy policy. Politicians are using language like this increasingly often – calling themselves “pragmatic” on climate change and invoking “common sense”. It sounds reasonable, reassuring, and grownup – the opposite of “hysterical” campaigners or “unrealistic” targets. But new research my colleagues and I conducted, calling on a decade of interviews with UK MPs, shows that political “pragmatism” is fast becoming a dangerous form of climate delay. By framing urgent action as “extreme” and steady-as-she-goes policies as “pragmatic”, leaders across the political spectrum are protecting the fossil-fuel status quo at the very moment scientists warn we need rapid, transformative change. Badenoch’s latest intervention is a perfect example. She said “common sense” dictates that every drop of oil must be extracted from the North Sea, and that net zero by 2050 was a policy pushed by “bullies”. This came just a day after the UK Met Office declared summer 2025 as the hottest on record.

Such a good @bankfieldbecky.bsky.social + @steveclimate.bsky.social paper here: examining how "climate pragmatism" has become a major part of the new lexicon of climate delay

Also see: "climate realism"

theconversation.com/politicians-...

Thanks for the repost and kind words Ketan!

"Climate pragmatism" in the UK; "climate realism" in the US: justifying the continuance of the fossil-fuel economy, either way.

YouTube video by Thinking the Unthinkable Positive Tipping Points: Overcoming Climate Instability

“The future isn’t something that happens to us, it’s something we build together. By choosing to act wisely today, we can navigate uncertainty and emerge stronger tomorrow.” - @laurielaybourn.bsky.social, @climate-risk.bsky.social

youtu.be/IkjsAQeomtQ

Polar 'geoengineering' won't fix climate warming, study finds Proposed "geoengineering" projects designed to reduce the impacts of global warming in polar regions would be ineffective, extremely costly and environmentally dangerous, researchers have warned.

Men will build giant floating walls to prevent warm water from reaching ice shelves, and scatter microbeads onto sea ice to increase its reflectivity before just stopping the burning of fossil fuels

www.abc.net.au/news/2025-09...

Also big thanks for @stucap.bsky.social 🙏

"pragmatic" climate delay - may be of interest @kevinclimate.bsky.social @jksteinberger.bsky.social @katharinehayhoe.com @carlymclachlan.bsky.social @aliceclimate.bsky.social @ericholthaus.com @georgemonbiot.bsky.social @chrisgpackham.bsky.social @giuliomattioli.bsky.social @doctorvive.bsky.social

Interesting take on the new politics of climate pragmatism that matches the emerging paradigm of climate realism around the world

cc @jeffcolgan.bsky.social

Politicians now talk of climate ‘pragmatism’ to delay action – new study Politicians talk about being pragmatic on climate change to avoid hard decisions.

In an article for The Conversation UK (@uk.theconversation.com), CAST affiliate Dr Steve Westlake (@steveclimate.bsky.social) discusses new research which "shows that political “pragmatism” is fast becoming a dangerous form of climate delay".

Read the article 👇

"By framing urgent action as 'extreme' and steady-as-she-goes policies as 'pragmatic', leaders across the political spectrum are protecting the fossil-fuel status quo at the very moment scientists warn we need rapid, transformative change."

Equity assessment of global mitigation pathways in the IPCC Sixth Assessment Report This paper analyses 556 model scenarios assessed by IPCC’s Working Group-III for the 6th Assessment Report, which have an underlying 10-region classification and correspond to restricting warming l...

"The projection of unequal outcomes across scenarios... is a matter of serious concern, especially when scenario results are directly used as inputs for #climate policy...

we need to move towards model &scenario building techniques where questions of equity &climate justice come to the foreground"

@cast-centre.bsky.social tagged properly!

Thanks again to co-author Rebecca Willis @bankfieldbecky.bsky.social and The Centre for Climate Change and Social Transformations (CAST) for funding our research @cast-centre.bsky.social

Access it here... 🙏https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s10584-025-03987-4

Crucially, the language of pragmatism should be called out when it is used to promote climate delay. Climate breakdown is not a pragmatic choice.

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New public polling: Behind the noise on net zero - Climate Barometer

Second, politicians often underestimate the true level of public support for climate policies. Closing this gap is essential for making faster climate mitigation the pragmatic choice. @climatebarometer.bsky.social does excellent work on this.

climatebarometer.org/new-public-p...

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So what can be done?

First, many MPs still base their arguments on science, so there is scope to increase their grasp of the scientific urgency. The CCC @thecccuk.bsky.social could have an important part to play here because trust in the CCC is high among MPs.

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a man in a white jacket is riding a yamaha atv through the woods ALT: a man in a white jacket is riding a yamaha atv through the woods

Pragmatic climate delay can go something like this:

"Yes we need urgent climate action. We trust the science. But we have to be pragmatic. So we can't have *this* urgent climate action, or *this* policy."

Many may even do this in good faith, trying to navigate a tricky political path.

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Pragmatism sounds sensible, reasonable, rational, even scientific. That's why it appeals to politicians, and why it's problematic.

Politicians and others can call on pragmatism to justify arguments that contradict the urgent message of climate science, and to hold two positions at once...

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We also found that when climate policies begin to take effect on people's lives, through changes to transport, heating, or energy infrastructure, a fragile political consensus on climate change leads MPs to talk of "pragmatism".

This risks a lowering of climate ambition.
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But we found some MPs only pay lip-service to climate action. This makes them open to a more sceptical stance based on “pragmatism”.

These politicians have limited bandwidth for climate concerns, limited grasp of the science, and are strongly swayed by the position of their party leadership.
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a woman in a lab coat is standing next to a table with a plate of food . ALT: a woman in a lab coat is standing next to a table with a plate of food .

There are positives too:

Many MPs now feel able to make a strong case for climate action based on:
- economics
- energy security
- clean air and better health
- opportunities for national leadership
- public opinion

This is progress.
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We found “pragmatism” is used by MPs:
- to promote incremental rather than transformative change
- to defend fossil fuel companies
- to sound sensible and scientific
- to protect a fragile political consensus
- and to dismiss “extreme” calls for a more rapid climate transition

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