Social Networks and Climate Change Policy Preferences: Structural Location and Policy Actor Support for Fossil Fuel Production

Abstract

Contrary to what is needed for reducing global GHG emissions, successive Canadian governments have placed fossil fuel production at the core of national economic development. This presents a puzzle: how should we understand contradictory political commitments to the Paris agreement and low carbon energy futures, on one hand, and the persistence of support for fossil fuel centered energy futures, on the other hand. Using a policy network perspective, we ask: Is the location of actors within a climate change policy network associated with their position on curtailing the Alberta oil sands development? Results show that actors’ social network positions are associated with their support for curtailing oil sands development. This network association persists even when the sectoral affiliation and climate change beliefs of actors are statistically controlled. Our results demonstrate that policy network analysis helps explain the persistence of the contradictory politics of fossil fuel development and support for decarbonization.