Thirty years ago when climate scientists were projecting apocalyptic fires, heatwaves, droughts and floods, their warnings were dismissed by many as unlikely. At the time, in the 1990s, climate denial was justified by scientific uncertainty.
The fossil fuel industry strategically invested in research to highlight that climate models could be wrong and climate impacts might not be as bad as projected. Transformative climate policy, including a global commitment to phase out fossil fuels, was effectively discouraged by emphasising uncertainty, doubt and scepticism.
But now in 2026, with devastating heat, drought, fires and floods causing death and destruction all over the world, scientific uncertainty is no longer the primary justification for the lack of transformative climate action. Destruction and suffering from climate instability is already worse than projected, yet climate policies are being weakened, new fossil fuel infrastructure is being built, and fossil fuel companies are making higher profits than ever.
So why is transformative climate action still not being prioritised? How do today’s powerful political and organisational leaders justify ignoring the threats and dismissing the urgent need for transformative climate policy?
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As climate chaos accelerates, climate obstruction – denying climate threats and delaying climate action – is also getting worse. Climate obstruction is defined as intentional efforts to slow or block climate policies and actions that would reduce the risks of climate change and stabilise the climate. Despite accelerating climate disruptions and intensifying climate suffering, climate obstruction is stronger than ever.
All around the world, governments and corporations are continuing with business-as-usual, acting as if worsening climate chaos does not exist. Climate commitments are being abandoned, climate policies are being watered-down, and climate goals are unmet. For many institutional and political decision makers, the climate crisis is ignored and dismissed as irrelevant.
In Ireland, climate obstruction has resulted in widespread delays and distractions from delivering on ambitious climate policy. The Government has been trying to weaken the Climate Act and has successfully removed accountability for large critical infrastructure projects to align with climate goals. The Minister for Climate, Darragh O’Brien, has admitted the Republic will not meet its legally binding 2030 carbon targets and acknowledged that the State will face billions in fines. The majority of commitments made in the annual national climate actions plans since 2023 remain unfulfilled, while the 2026 climate action plan is delayed – not yet published.
As a researcher who studies climate obstruction, I try to understand why society’s responses to the climate crisis continue to be inadequate and insufficient. For me, this new era of climate obstruction is particularly frightening, because it requires pretending things are okay when clearly they are not.
Instead of emphasising scientific uncertainty, today’s climate obstructionism relies on distracting away from climate suffering, disconnecting us from the violence of climate destruction, and pretending things are not so bad. It also involves promoting misleading economic arguments that position climate action as a threat to economic prosperity.
Framing climate policy in opposition to economic wellbeing is a narrative promoted by corporate interests and reinforced by alliances of powerful individuals and organisations who benefit from business-as-usual. These alliances invest heavily in lobbying and strategic communication campaigns to entrench their profit-seeking priorities. They intentionally attempt to constrain climate policy by focusing narrowly on insufficient individual actions and inadequate technological change to prevent movement toward the more systemic transformative changes that are so urgently needed.
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Climate obstruction is no longer based on scientific uncertainty; it is now structurally embedded within economic and political systems where corporate profits are prioritised over the needs of people and communities.
Given the power and influence of corporate interests on public policy and geopolitics – from big tech and AI, to the defence industry and militarisation, to the corporatised food, energy and housing sectors – many political leaders are no longer prioritising the public good. To maintain positions of power, they ignore climate threats and cater to short-term corporate interests, dismissing the health and prosperity of people and the planet. This results in building fossil-fuelled data centres, expanding fossil fuel extraction, and investing in new fossil-fuel infrastructure.
But increasingly people are seeing through the fog of climate obstruction. Pretending things are okay is not a long-term strategy when the emperor has no clothes. As the huge societal costs of climate inaction come into focus, new coalitions are emerging among social justice and environmental groups advocating for more regenerative economic systems – beyond growth, exploitation and extraction – to support a more climate-stable, healthy future. Honest engagement with the urgent need for transformative change is required.
Jennie C Stephens, professor of climate justice at Maynooth University, is a lead author of Climate Obstruction: A Global Assessment
