How climate policies can drive voters to the far right

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1. More than a decade ago, the Netherlands embarked on a straightforward plan to cut carbon emissions. Its legislature raised taxes on natural gas, using the money earned to help Dutch households install [solar panels](https://www.washingtonpost.com/climate-environment/2024/04/22/california-solar-duck-curve-rooftop/?itid=lk_inline_manual_2). By most measures, the program worked: By 2022, 20 percent of homes in the Netherlands had solar panels, up from about 2 percent in 2013. Natural gas prices, meanwhile, rose by almost 50 percent.

   But something else happened, according to a new [study](https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/00104140241237468). The Dutch families who were most vulnerable to the increase in gas prices — renters who paid their own utility bills — drifted to the right. Families facing increased [home energy costs](https://www.washingtonpost.com/climate-environment/2024/03/12/make-home-energy-efficient-savings/?itid=lk_inline_manual_4) became 5 to 6 percent more likely to vote for one of the Netherlands’ far-right parties.

   A similar backlash is happening all over Europe, as far-right parties position themselves in opposition to green policies. In Germany, a law that would have required homeowners to install heat pumps galvanized the far-right Alternative for Germany party, or AfD, giving it a boost. Farmers have rolled [tractors into Paris](https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/2024/04/11/europe-farmer-protests-right-wing-france/?itid=lk_inline_manual_5) to protest E.U. agricultural rules, and drivers in Italy and Britain have protested attempts to ban gas-guzzling cars from city centers.

   That resurgence of the right could slow down the green transition in Europe, which has been less polarized on global warming, and serves as a warning to the United States, where policies around electric vehicles and [gas stoves ](https://www.washingtonpost.com/climate-environment/2023/01/10/gas-stoves-ban-consumer-safety/?itid=lk_inline_manual_8)have already sparked a backlash. The shift also shows how, as climate policies increasingly touch citizens’ lives, even countries whose voters are staunchly supportive of clean energy may hit roadblocks.

   “This has really expanded the coalition of the far right,” said Erik Voeten, a professor of geopolitics at Georgetown University and the author of the new study on the Netherlands.

   Read more here: [https://www.washingtonpost.com/climate-environment/2024/05/01/how-climate-policies-are-giving-boost-far-right/?utm_campaign=wp_main&utm_medium=social&utm_source=reddit.com](https://www.washingtonpost.com/climate-environment/2024/05/01/how-climate-policies-are-giving-boost-far-right/?utm_campaign=wp_main&utm_medium=social&utm_source=reddit.com)