Climate dissonance: Examining the relationship between climate beliefs and attitudes toward fossil fuel activities in Norway

To meet the goals of the Paris Agreement and limit anthropogenic global warming to 1.5 °C (or below 2 °C), research indicates that a substantial proportion of the world's remaining fossil fuel reserves must remain unextracted. Despite this, several fossil-producing countries continue to expand hydrocarbon activity. Norway represents a particularly important case because it combines high levels of climate concern with continued support for oil and gas production. Given the intrinsic link between climate change and fossil fuel consumption, one might expect heightened concern about climate impacts to translate into greater support among respondents for restricting further hydrocarbon exploration and extraction. This article examines the relationship between climate change beliefs, political affiliation, and support for fossil fuel extraction in Norway. While many studies have examined climate attitudes or fossil fuel policy preferences independently, this paper addresses how these orientations coexist in a fossil-exporting welfare state, the paradox of strong climate concern alongside continued respondent-level support for fossil fuel production. Drawing on nationally representative survey data collected between 2020 and 2024, this study uses descriptive data from multiple years to show the stability of attitudes over time, while regression analyses focus on the 2024 dataset, which contains the full set of relevant variables and provides the most up-to-date snapshot of respondents' views. It further explores how climate attitudes, political orientation, and support for fossil fuel activities intersect to shape attitudes toward supply-side climate policy. Despite relatively high levels of climate scepticism compared to other Western nations, we find that most Norwegians perceive climate change as a serious issue. However, nearly 90% of respondents still support continued oil and gas production. Climate concern is associated with greater support for restricting future exploration, but not with support for ending existing production, and this relationship is strongly patterned by political affiliation. This paradox places Norway in a state of “climate dissonance”, in which concern about climate change coexists with continued endorsement of fossil fuel activities. As a highly educated nation with a strong environmental reputation yet an economy deeply intertwined with fossil fuel wealth, Norway provides a compelling case for understanding why high levels of climate concern do not necessarily translate into support for fossil fuel phase-out in fossil-fuel-dependent democracies.