Abstract
This thesis explores the relationship between attitudes related to the populist radical right toward climate change skepticism in Sweden, a country that has had a recent spike in a radical right party – The Sweden Democrats. The literature on climate change attitudes and populist radical right is expanding, stating that its leaders and supporters are often skeptical of climate science and hostile toward policies aimed at mitigating climate change. But due to the complex nature of the populist radical right, I argue that the different components of the populist radical right need to be disaggregated further, in their relationship to climate change. Drawing on the literature on climate change, I focus on public attitudes toward attribution and impact skepticism, referring to the idea to what degree individuals doubt the human influence in climate change as the primary driver of global warming, and the idea of various attitudes related to the potential consequences of climate change. Using data from the European Social Survey Round 8, the study examines the extent to which climate change attitudes and different attitudes connected to the populist radical right are related. The study uncovers that there are overall few climate skeptics in Sweden and that the number of people who are concerned over climate change impacts is not equally low. Furthermore, I find that the effect of identifying with the Sweden Democrats is a significant and positive predictor for attribution skepticism, while this is not the case for impact skepticism. Additionally, I find that several key elements of the populist radical right, such as authoritarianism, nativism, and certain aspect of populism are predictors for attribution skepticism. Moreover, the results suggest that this relationship is not overall the same for impact skepticism. My findings point to the importance of disaggregating between the different elements of populism regarding climate change attitudes, as the explanatory power of the elements differs between attribution and impact skepticism. Some pathways for further research include exploring this relationship in other countries, as well as over a longer period, to gain a better understanding of the drives of these attitudes and how they may evolve.