The Decline of Climate Skepticism in France: An Analysis of Climate Change Attitudes over the Last Two Decades
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.70917/jcc-2025-017Keywords:
climate change skepticism, global warming, eco-responsible behaviorAbstract
This article analyzes the evolution of public attitudes toward climate change in France. In the context of a challenging economic environment, the climate crisis continues to be a significant concern for the French populace, a concern that is exacerbated by the increasing frequency of climate-related disasters globally. Utilizing a logit model applied to four waves of a longitudinal survey conducted in 2000, 2010, 2019, and 2021, our findings indicate a noteworthy decline in climate skepticism. This reduction is correlated with an enhanced recognition of the scientific consensus on climate change and a broader adoption of environmentally responsible behaviors. Our analysis reveals significant associations between political orientation and climate skepticism: individuals who voted for far-right parties demonstrate a higher propensity for skepticism, whereas those who supported environmentalist parties exhibit a lower likelihood of skepticism. These findings highlight the critical need for ongoing efforts to communicate climate science effectively, promote pro-environmental behaviors, and acknowledge the pivotal role of political actors in mitigating climate skepticism.
References
Albright, E. A., & Crow, D. (2019). Beliefs about climate change in the aftermath of extreme flooding. Climatic Change, 155(1), 1-17.Ballew, M. T., Leiserowitz, A., Roser-Renouf, C., Rosenthal, S. A., Kotcher, J. E., Marlon, J. R., ... & Maibach, E. W. (2019). Climate change in the American mind: Data, tools, and trends. Environment: Science and Policy for Sustainable Development, 61(3), 4-18.Ballew, M. T., Pearson, A. R., Goldberg, M. H., Rosenthal, S. A., & Leiserowitz, A. (2020). Does socioeconomic status moderate the political divide on climate change? The roles of education, income, and individualism. Global Environmental Change, 60, 102024.Barnes, J., Dove, M., Lahsen, M., Mathews, A., McElwee, P., McIntosh, R., ... & Yager, K. (2013). Contribution of anthropology to the study of climate change. Nature Climate Change, 3(6), 541-544.Bayes, R., & Druckman, J. N. (2021). Motivated reasoning and climate change. Current Opinion in Behavioral Sciences, 42, 27-35.Bayes, R., Bolsen, T., & Druckman, J. N. (2023). A research agenda for climate change communication and public opinion: The role of scientific consensus messaging; and beyond. Environmental Communication, 17(1), 16-34 Bodner, J., Welch, W., & Brodie, I. (2020). COVID-19 conspiracy theories: QAnon, 5G, the New World Order and other viral ideas. McFarland.Bourdin, S., & Torre, A. (2023). Geography of contestation: A study on the Yellow Vest movement and the rise of populism in France. Journal of Regional Science, 63(1), 214-235.Bourdin, S., Molica, F., & Marques, S. A. (2025). Too much or not enough? The dual nature of green discontent and its geography. Regional Studies (fourthcoming)Bozkurt, V., & Gursoy, D. (2023). The Artificial Intelligence Paradox: Opportunity or Threat for Humanity?. International Journal of Human–Computer Interaction, 1-14.Brulle, R. J., & Werthman, C. (2021). The role of public relations firms in climate change politics. Climatic Change, 169(1-2), 8.Busch, T., & Judick, L. (2021). Climate change-that is not real! A comparative analysis of climate-skeptic think tanks in the USA and Germany. Climatic Change, 164(1-2), 18.Capstick, S., Whitmarsh, L., Poortinga, W., Pidgeon, N., & Upham, P. (2015). International trends in public perceptions of climate change over the past quarter century. Wiley Interdisciplinary Reviews: Climate Change, 6(1), 35-61.Carlton, J. S., Mase, A. S., Knutson, C. L., Lemos, M. C., Haigh, T., Todey, D. P., & Prokopy, L. S. (2016). The effects of extreme drought on climate change beliefs, risk perceptions, and adaptation attitudes. Climatic change, 135, 211-226.Cepparulo, A., & Giuriato, L. (2024). Constitutionalizing the fight against climate change. Insights from France. Environmental Science & Policy, 157, 103756.Cook, J., Oreskes, N., Doran, P. T., Anderegg, W. R., Verheggen, B., Maibach, E. W., ... & Nuccitelli, D. (2016). Consensus on consensus: a synthesis of consensus estimates on human-caused global warming. Environmental Research Letters, 11(4), 048002.Dekoninck, H., & Schmuck, D. (2022). The mobilizing power of influencers for pro-environmental behavior intentions and political participation. Environmental Communication, 16(4), 458-472.Estève, A. (2023). Preventing and Managing Climate Risks: France’s Approach to Climate Security. In Climate Security in the Anthropocene: Exploring the Approaches of United Nations Security Council Member-States (pp. 113-130). Cham: Springer International Publishing.Fairbrother, M. (2022). Public opinion about climate policies: A review and call for more studies of what people want. PLOS Climate, 1(5), e0000030.Faulques, M., Bonnet, J., Bourdin, S., Juge, M., Pigeon, J., & Richard, C. (2022). Generational effect and territorial distributive justice, the two main drivers for willingness to pay for renewable energies. Energy Policy, 168, 113094.Finucane, M. L., Slovic, P., Mertz, C. K., Flynn, J., & Satterfield, T. (2013). Gender, Race and Perceived Risk: The ‘White-Male’Effect. In The Feeling of Risk (pp. 125-139). Routledge.Gemenis, K. (2021). Explaining conspiracy beliefs and skepticism around the COVID-19 pandemic. Swiss Political Science Review, 27(2), 229-242.Gruzd, A., & Mai, P. (2020). Going viral: How a single tweet spawned a COVID-19 conspiracy theory on Twitter. Big Data & Society, 7(2), 2053951720938405.Hamilton, L. C. (2011). Education, politics and opinions about climate change evidence for interaction effects. Climatic Change, 104(2), 231-242.
262Haugseth, J. F., & Smeplass, E. (2023). The Greta Thunberg effect: A study of Norwegian youth’s reflexivity on climate change. Sociology, 57(4), 921-939.Hess, D. J., & Renner, M. (2019). Conservative political parties and energy transitions in Europe: Opposition to climate mitigation policies, Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews, 104, 419–428.Hornsey, M. J., & Lewandowsky, S. (2022). A toolkit for understanding and addressing climate skepticism. Nature human behaviour, 1-11.Hornsey, M. J., Harris, E. A., & Fielding, K. S. (2018). Relationships among conspiratorial beliefs, conservatism and climate skepticism across nations. Nature Climate Change, 8(7), 614-620.Huber, R. A., Greussing, E., & Eberl, J. M. (2022). From populism to climate scepticism: the role of institutional trust and attitudes towards science. Environmental Politics, 31(7), 1115-1138.Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC). (2018). Global warming of 1.5°C. An IPCC Special Report.Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC). (2023). Annual update of large-scale indicators of the state of the climate system and human influence, Earth System Science Data, 15, 6, 2295-2327.Jakučionytė-Skodienė, M., & Liobikienė, G. (2021). Climate change concern, personal responsibility and actions related to climate change mitigation in EU countries: Cross-cultural analysis. Journal of cleaner production, 281, 125189.Jang, S. M., & Hart, P. S. (2015). Polarized frames on "climate change" and "global warming" across countries and states: Evidence from Twitter big data. Global environmental change, 32, 11-17.Koteyko, N., Nerlich, B., & Hellsten, I. (Eds.). (2019). Climate Change Communication and the Internet. Routledge.Latkin, C. A., Hendrickson, Z. M., Dayton, L., & Bonneau, H. (2023). Political and Social Drivers of COVID-19 Prevention and Climate Change Behaviors and Attitudes. Climate, 11(3), 53.Latkin, C., Dayton, L., Coyle, C., Yi, G., Winiker, A., & German, D. (2022). The association between climate change attitudes and COVID-19 attitudes: The link is more than political ideology. The Journal of Climate Change and Health, 5, 100099.Lazer, D. M., Baum, M. A., Benkler, Y., Berinsky, A. J., Greenhill, K. M., Menczer, F., ... & Zittrain, J. L. (2018). The science of fake news. Science, 359(6380), 1094-1096.Leiserowitz, A., Roser-Renouf, C., Marlon, J., & Maibach, E. (2021). Global Warming’s Six Americas: a review and recommendations for climate change communication. Current Opinion in Behavioral Sciences, 42, 97-103 Lockwood, M. (2018). Right-wing populism and the climate change agenda: exploring the linkages. Environmental Politics, 27(4), 712-732.Lorenzoni, I., & Pidgeon, N. F. (2006). Public views on climate change: European and USA perspectives. Climatic change, 77(1-2), 73-95.Marquart-Pyatt, S. T., Shwom, R. L., Dietz, T., Dunlap, R. E., Kaplowitz, S. A., McCright, A. M., & Zahran, S. (2011). Understanding public opinion on climate change: a call for research. Environment: Science and Policy for Sustainable Development, 53(4), 38-42.Masson-Delmotte V. (2011), Climat : le vrai et le faux, Le Pommier, Paris, 208 p.Mayer, A., & Smith, E. K. (2019). Unstoppable climate change? The influence of fatalistic beliefs about climate change on behavioural change and willingness to pay cross-nationally. Climate Policy, 19(4), 511-523.McCright, A. M., & Dunlap, R. E. (2011a). The politicization of climate change and polarization in the American public’s views of global warming, 2001-2010. The Sociological Quarterly, 52(2), 155-194.McCright, A. M., & Dunlap, R. E. (2011b). Cool dudes: The denial of climate change among conservative white males in the United States. Global environmental change, 21(4), 1163-1172.Mewes, L., Tuitjer, L., & Dirksmeier, P. (2024). Exploring the variances of climate change opinions in Germany at a fine-grained local scale. Nature Communications, 15(1), 1867.Milfont, T. L., Milojev, P., Greaves, L. M., & Sibley, C. G. (2015). Socio-structural and psychological foundations of climate change beliefs. New Zealand Journal of Psychology (Online), 44(1), 17.Ogunbode, C. A., Doran, R., & Böhm, G. (2020). Individual and local flooding experiences are differentially associated with subjective attribution and climate change concern. Climatic Change, 162, 2243-2255.Ojala, M. (2013). Coping with climate change among adolescents: Implications for subjective well-being and environmental engagement. Sustainability, 5(5), 2191-2209.Painter, J., & Ashe, T. (2012). Cross-national comparison of the presence of climate skepticism in the print media in six countries, 2007-10. Environmental Research Letters, 7(4), 044005.Palm, R., & Bolsen, T. (2022). Housing market response to sea-level rise in Florida. Springer.Peeters, W., Diependaele, L., & Sterckx, S. (2019). Moral disengagement and the motivational gap in climate change. Ethical Theory and Moral Practice, 22, 425-447.Poortinga, W., Spence, A., Whitmarsh, L., Capstick, S., & Pidgeon, N. F. (2011). Uncertain climate: An investigation into public scepticism about anthropogenic climate change. Global Environmental Change, 21(3), 1015-1024.Poortinga, W., Whitmarsh, L., Steg, L., Böhm, G., & Fisher, S. (2019). Climate change perceptions and their individual-level determinants: A cross-European analysis. Global environmental change, 55, 25-35.Posthumus, S. (2019). Climato-skepticism in France. Climate Change Scepticism: A Transnational Ecocritical Analysis, 175-205.Roxburgh, N., Guan, D., Shin, K. J., Rand, W., Managi, S., Lovelace, R., & Meng, J. (2019). Characterising climate change discourse on social media during extreme weather events. Global environmental change, 54, 50-60.
263Salerno, F. (2023). The Greta Thunberg effect on climate equity: A worldwide Google Trend analysis. Sustainability, 15(7), 6233.Sarathchandra, D., Haltinner, K., & Grindal, M. (2022). Climate skeptics’ identity construction and (Dis) trust in science in the United States. Environmental Sociology, 8(1), 25-40.Schuster, R., Gregory, K., Möller, T., & Koesten, L. (2024). “Being Simple on Complex Issues”–Accounts on Visual Data Communication about Climate Change. IEEE Transactions on Visualization and Computer Graphics.Sharman, A., & Howarth, C. (2017). Climate stories: Why do climate scientists and skeptical voices participate in the climate debate? Public Understanding of Science, 26(7), 826-842.Simonet, G., & Fatorić, S. (2016). Does "adaptation to climate change" mean resignation or opportunity? Regional environmental change, 16(3), 789-799.Skeirytė, A., Krikštolaitis, R., & Liobikienė, G. (2022). The differences of climate change perception, responsibility and climate-friendly behavior among generations and the main determinants of youth’s climate-friendly actions in the EU. Journal of environmental management, 323, 116277.Steg, L. (2023). Psychology of climate change. Annual Review of Psychology, 74(1), 391-421.Stevenson, K. T., Peterson, M. N., Bondell, H. D., Moore, S. E., & Carrier, S. J. (2014). Overcoming skepticism with education: interacting influences of worldview and climate change knowledge on perceived climate change risk among adolescents. Climatic change, 126, 293-304.Tam K.P., Chan H.W., 2023, Conspiracy theories and climate change: A systematic review, Journal of Environmental Psychology, 91, [https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jenvp.2023.102129Tranter](https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jenvp.2023.102129Tranter), B., & Booth, K. (2015). Skepticism in a changing climate: A cross-national study. Global Environmental Change, 33, 154-164.Van der Linden, S., Leiserowitz, A., & Maibach, E. (2019). The gateway belief model: A large-scale replication. Journal of Environmental Psychology, 62, 49-58.Van Rensburg, W., & Head, B. W. (2017). Climate change scepticism: reconsidering how to respond to core criticisms of climate science and policy. Sage Open, 7(4), 2158244017748983.Vesa, J., Gronow, A., & Ylä-Anttila, T. (2020). The quiet opposition: How the pro-economy lobby influences climate policy. Global Environmental Change, 63, 102117.Wang, D., Dong, L., & Mei, J. (2023). An advanced review of climate change mitigation policies in Germany, France, and the Netherlands. Environmental Research Letters, 18(10), 103001.Whitmarsh, L. (2008). Are flood victims more concerned about climate change than other people? The role of direct experience in risk perception and behavioural response. Journal of risk research, 11(3), 351-374.Whitmarsh, L. (2011). Scepticism and uncertainty about climate change: Dimensions, determinants and change over time. Global Environmental Change, 21(2), 690-700.Williams, H. T., McMurray, J. R., Kurz, T., & Lambert, F. H. (2015). Network analysis reveals open forums and echo chambers in social media discussions of climate change. Global environmental change, 32, 126-138.
Downloads
Published
Versions
- 2026-10-11 (4)
- 2026-10-11 (3)
- 2026-10-10 (2)
- 2025-08-29 (1)
Issue
Section
License
Copyright (c) 2025 Sébastien Bourdin, André Torre (Author)
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.
