Is the clampdown on climate protest a threat to democracy?

In a recently published report, “Criminalisation and Repression of Climate and Environmental Protests”,  Dr. Oscar Berglund and his colleagues identified four key mechanisms through which climate and environmental protests are repressed: the introduction of new anti-protest laws, the broadening use of existing legislation, excessive policing and killings and disappearances of activists. 

Alasdair and Oscar discuss the findings of the report and the ways in which the clampdown on climate protest represents a threat to both democracy and net zero targets. 

Oscar Berglund is Senior Lecturer in International Public and Social Policy in the School for Policy Studies at the University of Bristol. He is an expert on climate change activism and civil disobedience.

Audio engineering by Vasko Kostovski.

Further reading:

• Criminalisation and Repression of Climate and Environmental Protests, University of Bristol, 2024
• Civic Activism in an Intensifying Climate Crisis, Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, 2024 
• Saving Ourselves: From Climate Shocks to Climate Action, Columbia University Press, 2024

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