Polarization tied to higher CO2 emissions from power plants
Feb 27th 2026
A CU Boulder study published in the American Sociological Review finds that intense partisan hostility, or affective polarization, undermines democracies ability to enforce climate rules and is linked to higher CO2 emission rates at fossil-fueled power plants.
- Researchers compared affective polarization scores to CO2 emissions per unit of electricity at 20,115 fossil-fueled plants across 92 democracies.
- Higher affective polarization is associated with significantly higher plant-level CO2 emission rates after controlling for other factors.
- Uruguay, with the lowest polarization, had emission rates 11% below average, while Poland, with the highest polarization, was nearly 8% above average.
- The United States ranks near the top for affective polarization, is above average for plant emissions, and authors warn polarization can enable rollbacks like the recent EPA move on the 2009 endangerment finding.
- Government-owned power plants were especially likely to emit more carbon in more polarized democracies.
- The study notes Britain as an example where framing the energy transition as a national effort helped reduce the worst-polluting plants despite political rancor.