A caution on climate hope

In this paper, we caution against the tendency in climate discourse to equate hope with progress. While hope is often framed as essential for motivating change, its uncritical celebration can undermine climate action by sustaining the status quo and depoliticising transformative measures. We call for, first, attention to false hope, a charge some level at techno-solutionist narratives and incremental policy that fail to confront the scale of the crisis; second, an exploration of pessimism and hopelessness’ potential in rejecting false hopes and opening space for radical responses, and third, an overall ambivalent and contingent position on the equation of emotions with climate progress. Abandoning the assumption that hope is a strategic necessity enables a climate scholarship and politics that is cautious of techno-utopian deferral, attuned to how false hope and optimism may be deployed strategically, and receptive to the full range of emotions and affects that can shape action.