The ‘playbook’ lobbyists use to delay climate action

When Professor Christian Downie appeared before a Senate inquiry into climate and energy misinformation, he warned that Australia is facing coordinated campaigns designed not to debate climate solutions, but to stall them.

Professor Downie has spent years inside boardrooms and the lobbying world studying how these campaigns are built – tracing the billions spent on messaging by lobby groups, PR firms and think tanks – and outlining what he calls “the climate obstruction playbook”. It’s a strategy refined in Washington and increasingly echoed in Australia.

Today, Professor at ANU’s School of Regulation and Global Governance, Christian Downie, on how the obstruction playbook has been so successful in stopping action on climate change.

This episode was originally published in October, 2025.

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Guest: Professor at ANU’s School of Regulation and Global Governance and Director of the Governing Energy Transition Lab, Christian Downie

Photo: REUTERS/Pascal Rossignol

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