Climate change doesn’t win you a climate election: party competition in the 2021 Norwegian general election

Abstract

The 2021 Norwegian General Election was hailed as a ‘climate election’, yet the Greens only won three seats. What explains the centrality of climate change and why did this not translate into more success for the Greens? The academic literature emphasises the valence nature of climate change, meaning it is a consensus issue and that parties compete on competence. Presenting original voter data, we demonstrate this not to be the case. The Greens faltered not because of a perceived lack of competence, but because of fierce competition which fragmented issue ownership. Moreover, we show that fragmented issue ownership is not the result of voters’ differing views of competence, but the policy options presented by the parties. Our article therefore questions the valence nature of climate change and makes a significant contribution to the literature on the party politics of climate change, as well as on the (re)politicisation of climate politics.