To Deny or to Delay: Climate action delayism and its relationships with climate change anxiety and denialism

Addressing the climate crisis requires tackling beliefs that may undermine individual and collective action, such as conspiracy beliefs or climate change denialism. Research presented here concerns another set of beliefs undermining climate action that has been less explored: climate delayism. Climate action delayism comprises a set of beliefs questioning not so much the reality of climate change but rather the need to undertake urgent, systematic and decisive action. These include redirecting responsibility for climate action, pushing for non-transformative solutions, emphasising the downsides of climate policies, and conceding to climate impacts. Climate action delayism is employed to justify incation or inadequate efforts by downplaying the need for action. So far, delayism has been primarily analysed in the context of rhetorical strategies leaders in private organisations and governments use to avoid transformative solutions. Little attention has been given to understanding the extent to which the general public upholds delayism beliefs. After crafting belief statements drawn from the extant literature on discourses of climate delay, we asked representative samples of Polish and British citizens (Ns=500) to rate these statements to identify the underlying structure of delayism beliefs in the general public. To provide initial validity evidence for the delayism beliefs, we also probed their relationships with climate anxiety and denialism. The main results are threefold: (1) the general factorial structure of seven broad delayism beliefs is comparable in Poland, and the United Kingdom; (2) overall lower levels of climate anxiety and higher denialism are associated with greater delayism; and notably (3) despite a significant overlap between climate anxiety, denialism and delayism, some delayism beliefs are upheld by respondents who believe in and worry about climate change. We will discuss our findings and research program in terms of its importance in understanding why while denialistic beliefs are declining, discourses of delay that undermine individual and collective action are more widespread.