Claim: Climate “Pragmatism” is Cover for Climate Delay
3 hours ago Eric Worrall 13 Comments
Essay by Eric Worrall
“Pragmatism” allegedly allows politicians to be in favour of climate action without actually having to do anything.
Politicians now talk of climate ‘pragmatism’ to delay action – new study
Published: September 5, 2025 3.28am AEST
Steve Westlake
Lecturer, Environmental Psychology, University of Bath
Conservative leader Kemi Badenoch has described her plan to “maximise extraction” of the UK’s oil and gas from the North Sea as a “common sense”energy policy.
Politicians are using language like this increasingly often – calling themselves “pragmatic” on climate change and invoking “common sense”. It sounds reasonable, reassuring, and grownup – the opposite of “hysterical” campaigners or “unrealistic” targets.
But new research my colleagues and I conducted, calling on a decade of interviews with UK MPs, shows that political “pragmatism” is fast becoming a dangerous form of climate delay. By framing urgent action as “extreme” and steady-as-she-goes policies as “pragmatic”, leaders across the political spectrum are protecting the fossil-fuel status quo at the very moment scientists warn we need rapid, transformative change.
https://wattsupwiththat.com/2025/09/06/claim-climate-pragmatism-is-cover-for-climate-delay/
