Policy implications of climate change denial: Content analysis of Russian national and regional news media. Issue 1 (January 2021) - Yagodin, Dmitry
This article investigates the policy implications of national and regional climate change denial in Russia. While in general Russia has lagged behind in its climate mitigation policy, its key fossil-fuel regions are actively responding to external initiatives and pressures. As the country generally lacks substantial climate policy initiatives, the focus of this study is on the symbolic policy reactions operationalized as the media coverage of climate change at the national and regional levels in Russia during 2017–2018. Following the theoretical perspective of disproportionate policy response, the analysis elaborates on one of the suggested causes of policy over and underreactions, namely, the level of public demand for policy action. The findings indicate potential for disproportionate policy response research to conceive of public demand in broader terms, distinguishing between local, national and international domains.