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This article examines how political messengers, and not the message, influence attitudes toward renewable energy infrastructure amid an increasingly polarized climate change debate. Focusing on wind power, a highly politicized issue, and solar energy, less contentious, we conducted an experimental survey in Germany. We assess how either a far-right or an environmentalist critic affect acceptance of renewables. Importantly, our analysis examines support for renewables in forest areas, focusing on a conflict between climate action and local environmental protection. Our findings reveal that the messenger impacts attitudes regarding wind energy. Criticism of wind turbine expansion by an environmentalist actor leads to greater rejection, while a similar critique by a far-right actor results in increased acceptance, i.e. a backlash effect. No such influence was found for solar energy. We explain these diverging findings by differences in politicization. Our findings have important consequences for understanding key dynamics of the public debate and political conflict over climate action.
Weisskircher et al. (Tue,) studied this question.