Public opinion shapes what governments can do to cope with the current climate crisis. How do Latin Americans form their beliefs about climate change and assess associated risks? What strategies are climate skeptics using to garner public support in the region, and how can advocates respond? How do the people of Latin America react to international climate criticism, and what opportunities exist for global engagement? Drawing on new survey data, this talk will explore the dynamic interplay between public sentiment and climate action, shedding light on the strategies employed by both domestic and international actors to sway public support and the measures their opponents take to counteract them. The Georgetown Americas Institute (GAI) is pleased to host a discussion on the role of public opinion in climate policy with Matias Spektor, GAI resident fellow and leading expert on climate politics in Latin America, moderated by Denisse Yanovich, GAI managing director.
Featuring
Matias Spektor is a resident fellow at the Georgetown Americas Institute at Georgetown University and professor of politics and international relations at Fundação Getulio Vargas in Brazil. He specializes in international security, climate politics, and transnational political violence with a focus on Latin America and the Global South. He has been a visiting scholar at Princeton University, the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, the Council on Foreign Relations, the London School of Economics, and King’s College London. He holds a doctorate from the University of Oxford.
Denisse Yanovich is the managing director of the Georgetown Americas Institute. Prior to joining Georgetown she was the deputy to the president at the Inter-American Dialogue, a leading think tank on Latin America. She also worked at the Embassy of Colombia in Washington, managing their Public Diplomacy program, and Fedesarrollo, an economic policy think tank in Colombia, as a research associate. Yanovich holds a B.S. and M.A. in economics from Universidad de Los Andes in Bogotá and M.A. in art history from the Courtauld Institute of Art, University College, London.
