Thread by @steviedubyu

A short thread on the risks of countries claiming to be "climate leaders":

The image of the heroic leader is ubiquitous in our popular culture, politics, business and media. This results in a tendency to exaggerate the role of leaders in both successes and failures.

An emphasis on heroic leadership can also lead to “learned helplessness” and dependency among followers. Thus followers use leaders to insulate themselves against uncomfortable feelings, and project hope and responsibility onto leaders.

Gemmill and Oakley say there is an inherent “deskilling” process in follower-leader situations, with followers becoming less functional as they attribute responsibility to the leader. Hence why bold national claims of climate leadership are risky. journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/00…

The UK Government continually says "we are a world leader on climate change". While the intention and effect may be (partially) motivational, such repeated claims may nudge individuals, businesses and institutions towards not taking responsibility themselves.

By activating a narrative of “our nation is already a climate leader”, relevant actors can attribute responsibility and success to the state, and absolve themselves of the need to make challenging personal or institutional changes.

This is especially problematic when the claimed national leadership status in fact refers to relatively narrow areas (electricity generation and the setting of climate targets in the UK's case) and ignores, for instance, continued Govt investment in fossil fuels.

For these reasons and more, bold claims of national climate leadership should be treated with caution. This is not to pour cold water on successes, but rather to guard against the complacency, deskilling and learned helplessness that comes with heroic leadership rhetoric. /end