Climate politics: how public persuasion affects the trade-off between environmental and economic performance

This paper aims at studying the impact of public persuasion, through information
dissemination, on environmental and economic performance. A differential
game in which opposite interest groups compete for bringing the majority’s environmental
concern closer to their views is developed. The results show a strong
asymmetry in the impact of public persuasion. It may bring the median voter
economy closer to the social optimum in the long run, thereby reducing environmental
and economic distorsions. But this only occurs when the environmental
group exhibits a radical ideology and people are initially closer to the industrialists’
views. By contrast, economies where industrial groups are powerful and
strongly opposed to environmental protection never benefit from the outcome of
the game of persuasion. This may explain why the US have failed to take action on
global warming up to now.