A groundbreaking study by Dynamics of Inclusive Prosperity Initiative member and Erasmus School of Philosophy Assistant Professor Yogi Hale Hendlin and ESL graduate Fernando Procópio Palazzo reveals how the practice of compartmentalization by governments and industries perpetuates climate denial and delays environmental action.
The study highlights a shift from outright denial to "soft denial" tactics that obscure accountability for climate-damaging actions.
False sense of progress
The authors demonstrate that compartmentalization — presented in a form of strategies of separating sustainable and unsustainable practices into distinct narratives—creates a false sense of progress while enabling harmful activities to continue. This tactic is evident across industries, from fossil fuels to tobacco, and often exploits Global North-South dynamics, as seen in the case of Norwegian companies operating in Brazil. The study also distinguishes compartmentalization from greenwashing, describing it as "an institutionalized, embedded practice of making sense of the world by splitting benefits and costs into separate accounts, while greenwashing involves deliberate subterfuge."
Critical framework
The research offers a typology of compartmentalization strategies, including, inter alia, selective risk analysis and moral accounting, and urges policymakers to comprehensively integrate environmental impacts across sectors. This study provides a critical framework for dismantling the structural enablers of climate denial and fostering coordinated ecological action.
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You can read the article in PLOS Climate through this link.
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