The anti-climate lobby is winning
One of the more common tropes of climate change deniers is that climate change activism is driven by the large amount of money that can be made in research grants, subsidies, etc. if you work on that issue. I like to counter these claims with the statement that we all know that climate change is a global conspiracy and only multimillionaire oil executives are willing to blow the whistle.
I don’t need to say a lot about the lobbying activities of corporations trying to influence US politics toward a pro-climate or anti-climate direction except that on average US firms spend $277,000 per year per company on anti-climate lobbying and $185,000 per year per firm on pro-climate lobbying. Anti-climate lobbying outspends pro-climate lobbying by 50% each year. The below charts are taken from a study of US corporate lobbying activities from the University of Zurich. I will let them speak for themselves.
First, here are two charts of the amount spent by US firms on pro- and anti-climate lobbying (top chart, a) and the number of firms engaged in pro-and anti-climate lobbying (bottom chart, b).
Climate lobbying over time
Source: Leipold et al. (2024)
Next are two charts with the total amount of money spent on pro- and anti-climate lobbying (top) and the average amount spent per company (bottom).
Climate lobbying by industry
Source: Leipold et al. (2024)
Finally, two charts that show the largest anti-climate lobbyists (top) and the fifty largest pro-climate lobbyists (bottom) in the US.
50 biggest pro- and anti-climate lobbyists
Source: Leipold et al. (2024)
This doesn't surprise me at all. People who say there is no human-caused global warming don't pass the smell test. Like anti-vax activists, or the supporters of incel rights. This hasn't really changed over time; back in the day, you could tell Stalinists, members of the John Birch society and voters of George Wallace ten yards against the wind.
What I'd like to know however is how much substance there is to the belief that German (anti-nuclear) Greens have been financed by the petro-industrial complex, in particular by Russia's.
It's perverse that a) fossil fuel companies are still being subsidised by taxpayers, b) fossil fuel companies are using government subsidies for lobbying creating a vicious circle of omnicide and ecocide.