Climatic Change http://doi.org/csv8 (2018)

Political activities that are designed to influence government decisions on behalf of an organization include direct lobbying of politicians, funding think-tanks, grass-roots mobilization and public relations campaigns. Although lobbying has been implicated in the failure to pass legislation to limit carbon emissions in the United States, research on climate policy has typically focused on public opinion rather than the institutional dynamics that support political decision-making.

Robert Brulle from Drexel University, USA, analysed quarterly lobbying reports that are mandatory for organizations that spend money on direct lobbying efforts in the United States, and found that US$2 billion was spent on climate lobbying from 2000 to 2016, representing 3.9% of total lobbying outlay. Lobbying expenditures varied over time, peaking in 2009–2010 when Congress and the Executive Branch were Democrat-controlled, and corresponded to the number of bills and Congressional hearings related to climate change. The limited contribution of environmental organizations to climate lobbying expenditures relative to corporations in the transportation, utility and fossil fuel sectors that made up the majority of spending raises questions about the balance of information provided to government decision-makers.