Political myths in climate and energy politics (panel on Climate obstructionism)

Myths are narratives that present a story about connected events yet there might be different variations of the same myth (Flood 2002: 27). Most literature on political myths come from political philosophy (Bottici and Challend 2006 and Bottici 2007) as such the initial research on political myths was predominately theoretical. However, myths are often used by policymakers as political legitimacy to take (in)action (Lynggaard 2019: 115 and Della Sala 2010). In other words, political myths start as narratives that develop over time to become institutionalised as the story continues to be retold and more people start to support the myth (Della Sala 2010). Thus, it is important to understand the role of political myths in policy discourses and policymaking. Climate change has been a contested policy field, which has gained more dominance over the past years. There are many narratives and discourses about climate (in)action, some of these narratives becomes myths and institutionalised into political discourses about climate (in)action and policymaking thereby affecting future policy actions. For example, the myth of denial, where people do not believe in climate change, have had a strong position in the climate change discourse in many countries. Whilst at the opposite end the myth of climate leadership created narratives about actors like the EU, who took a leading position in climate action and setting ambitious climate goals (Sprungk and Lenschow 2010). Indeed, climate myths are particularly relevant to explain (lack of) action to meet long-term climate goals. Yet the concept of climate myth is rarely defined in the literature. Thus, this paper aims to conceptualise climate myths and create a typology for identifying four types of climate myths. This paper uses the existing theoretical literature on political myths (e.g. Bottici 2007, Bottici and Challand 2006, Flood 2002, Della Sala 2010 and Lenschow and Sprungk 2010) to develop a typology for climate myths. The aim of the typology is to identify different types of climate myths and explain how they influence climate policymaking. The typology builds on known climate narratives like leadership, technological optimism, delayism and denialism. The typology shows how these narratives have become political myths that influence climate discourses and policymaking. Thus, the paper provides a framework for analysing different types of climate actions and expose the myths behind these narratives.