Correspondence Published: 25 July 2022 A political experiment may have extracted Australia from the climate wars Matthew J. Hornsey ORCID: orcid.org/0000-0003-1275-3977 1 , Cassandra M. Chapman ORCID: orcid.org/0000-0002-8488-6106 1 , Kelly S. Fielding ORCID: orcid.org/0000-0001-5301-0331 2 , Winnifred R. Louis ORCID: orcid.org/0000-0003-2996-982X 3 & … Samuel Pearson ORCID: orcid.org/0000-0002-2600-0549 1 Show authors Nature Climate Change volume ?12 ,? pages 695?696 ( 2022 ) Cite this article 1696 Accesses 6 Citations 77 Altmetric Metrics details Subjects Climate change Policy Access through your institution Buy or subscribe To the Editor ? A group of independents, running on a climate action agenda, has had stunning success in some of the most conservative electorates in Australia. The playbook used to achieve this political shift is worth examining, because it may provide clues for other countries plagued with polarization and gridlock on climate policy. Much like US conservatives 1 , 2 , Australian conservatives have historically viewed climate change discussion as both a threat and a political opportunity. Climate mitigation was perceived to herald a big-government era of regulation for markets and individual freedoms, which some conservatives saw as anathema 3 . However, it also presented opportunities for conservatives to present themselves as protectors of Australia’s coal industry, a strategy valued for harvesting votes from regional coal mining communities. Supported by a strongly climate-sceptical media 4 , the political right argued that substantial changes to energy policy were unnecessary. This is a preview of subscription content, access via your institution Relevant articles Open Access articles citing this article. Publicly expressed climate scepticism is greatest in regions with high CO2 emissions Samuel Pearson , Matthew J. Hornsey … Chris Greig Climatic Change Open Access 13 May 2024 Access options Access through your institution Access through your institution Change institution Buy or subscribe Access Nature and 54 other Nature Portfolio journals Get Nature+, our best-value online-access subscription 24,99?€ /?30?days cancel any time Learn more Subscription info for Korean customers We have a dedicated website for our Korean customers. Please go to natureasia.com to subscribe to this journal. Go to natureasia.com Buy this article Purchase on Springer Link Instant access to full article PDF Buy now Prices may be subject to local taxes which are calculated during checkout Additional access options: Log in Learn about institutional subscriptions Read our FAQs Contact customer support References McCright, A. M. & Dunlap, R. E. Soc. Probl. 50 , 348?373 (2003). Article Google Scholar McCright, A. M. & Dunlap, R. E. Theory Cult. Soc. 27 , 100?133 (2010). Article Google Scholar Hornsey, M. J. Curr. Opin. 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Chapman?&?Samuel Pearson School of Communication and Arts, University of Queensland, St Lucia, Queensland, Australia Kelly S. Fielding School of Psychology, University of Queensland, St Lucia, Queensland, Australia Winnifred R. Louis Authors Matthew J. Hornsey View author publications You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar Cassandra M. Chapman View author publications You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar Kelly S. Fielding View author publications You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar Winnifred R. Louis View author publications You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar Samuel Pearson View author publications You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar Corresponding author Correspondence to Matthew J. Hornsey . Ethics declarations Competing interests The authors declare no competing interests. Rights and permissions Reprints and permissions About this article Cite this article Hornsey, M.J., Chapman, C.M., Fielding, K.S. et al. A political experiment may have extracted Australia from the climate wars. Nat. Clim. Chang. 12 , 695?696 (2022). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41558-022-01431-4 Download citation Published : 25 July 2022 Issue Date : August 2022 DOI : https://doi.org/10.1038/s41558-022-01431-4 Share this article Anyone you share the following link with will be able to read this content: Get shareable link Sorry, a shareable link is not currently available for this article. Copy to clipboard Provided by the Springer Nature SharedIt content-sharing initiative This article is cited by Publicly expressed climate scepticism is greatest in regions with high CO2 emissions Samuel Pearson Matthew J. Hornsey Chris Greig Climatic Change (2024) A toolkit for understanding and addressing climate scepticism Matthew J. Hornsey Stephan Lewandowsky Nature Human Behaviour (2022)