Echo chambers of climate advocates and obstructionists: information exchange among policy actors in ten countries

Echo chambers of like-minded policy actors who rely on information aligning with their existing beliefs can hinder informed decision-making on complex policy problems like climate change. Echo chambers of climate obstructionists are particularly concerning because they are likely to circulate misinformation. However, we do not know whether climate obstructionists are particularly prone to forming echo chambers. We examine the echo chambers of climate obstructionists and advocates of climate action in ten countries using original survey data and inferential network analysis. We introduce a new way of studying echo chambers of policy actors by identifying groups of like-minded actors and analyzing information exchange within these groups. Our results indicate that while climate obstruction poses a challenge in all the case countries, echo chambers of both climate advocates and climate obstructionists are relatively rare. The results also indicate that while many actors exchange information across ideological lines, significant echo chambers do emerge in countries where climate obstructionists question the reliability of climate science.