Far Right Climate Skepticism Across Europe: the Transnationalization of Narratives?

This article explores the evolving relationship between radical right actors and environmental issues in Europe, focusing on whether a transnational environmental politics is emerging within the radical right beyond the traditional stance of denialism. Through a quantitative text analysis of Facebook data (77116 posts) from political parties, social movements, and leaders across seven European countries (138 actors from Italy, France, the United Kingdom, Austria, Hungary, Poland, and the Czech Republic), we aim to identify the frames and narratives used by radical right actors to discuss environmental issues. The study is guided by two central research questions: (a) Is a more nuanced position towards the environment emerging within radical right actors in Europe that goes beyond denialism? (b) Are there more similarities or differences across these actors, and are there indications of cross-border alignment? Building on these inquiries, we investigate whether radical right actors are increasingly adopting an environmentalist position, distinct from denialism, to articulate a climate ideology rooted in far- right values such as nationalism, identity preservation, and anti-globalism. We empirically investigate this issue through a BERT model text classification on social media data. By identifying shared frames and narratives, our study seeks to uncover potential patterns of transnationalization in radical right environmental discourses, shedding light on the interplay between ideological evolution and strategic positioning in response to environmental challenges. This study provides both an empirical contribution and a typological-analytical perspective, offering a more comprehensive understanding of how radical right actors currently discuss and frame environmental issues.