Predatory Delay: The Hidden Barrier to Climate Action
Understanding predatory delay: how vested interests intentionally stall climate action, perpetuating environmental harm across generations.
Predatory delay refers to the deliberate stalling of necessary climate or environmental action by organizations, industries, or governments seeking to protect or maximize their existing profits and interests. This tactic obstructs genuine progress towards sustainability, all while creating an illusion of incremental change. The result: environmental harm accumulates, and opportunities for effective action dwindle.
What is Predatory Delay?
The term “predatory delay” was coined by writer and futurist Alex Steffen in 2016 to describe a subtle but powerful strategy used by entrenched interests—especially in the fossil fuel sector. Instead of outright denial of climate change, these actors accept the science but relentlessly slow walk solutions and meaningful change, often through complex messaging, incremental policies, and legislative manipulation. Their goal is to extract maximum short-term gain, despite pervasive and growing harms to people and the planet.
- Definition: A strategy of consciously and systematically slowing or obstructing the transition to a sustainable or just future for profit or self-interest.
- Origins: Introduced by Alex Steffen as “the kind of business as usual, slow walking response we see from the world’s largest businesses, governments, and financial institutions to climate change.”
- Key Mechanism: Appearing to cooperate with sustainability goals while fighting to delay any changes that might hurt the status quo.
How Does Predatory Delay Work?
Predatory delay is not simple inaction or denial. It manifests through:
- Incrementalism: Emphasizing slow, step-by-step change—even when urgent, transformative action is needed.
- Downplaying Threats: Minimizing the scale and urgency of crises, like climate change, to reduce public pressure for change.
- Civic Sabotage: Undermining democratic processes, trust in science, or regulatory agencies to block more ambitious policies.
- PR Campaigns: Running sophisticated campaigns to shape public discourse and sow confusion about solutions (e.g., exaggerating electric vehicle risks, overemphasizing uncertainties about renewable energy).
- Legal and Political Obstruction: Influencing or lobbying decision-makers to water down, postpone, or halt climate and environmental regulations.
Historical Context and Evolution
Predatory delay is not a new phenomenon. It draws on a playbook perfected over decades by industries resisting calls for environmental responsibility:
- Tobacco Industry: Delayed regulation by sowing doubt about scientific evidence linking smoking and health harms.
- Chemical and Plastics Sectors: Framed pollution concerns as overblown or a matter for “personal responsibility” rather than regulation.
- Fossil Fuel Giants: Used lobbyists, PR firms, and even academic funding to challenge the need—or feasibility—of rapid decarbonization.
But unlike outright climate denial, predatory delay strategically admits the need for action in theory, then resists all urgency or meaningful measures in practice.
Core Tactics of Predatory Delay
Predatory delay uses a range of overlapping tactics to maintain business as usual, even in the face of mounting environmental crisis. These include:
- Reframing Goals: Branding net-zero carbon targets as collective ambitions, rather than binding commitments specific to the company or actor. For example, internal communications at oil majors have explicitly instructed employees not to commit the organization to deep emissions reductions unless it “makes business sense.”
- Exaggerating Transition Risks: Emphasizing job losses, economic disruption, or reliability concerns associated with rapidly moving away from fossil fuels or established industries.
- Promoting Technological Optimism: Claiming unproven future technologies (like geoengineering or carbon capture) will allow continued emissions today, deferring action.
- Attacking Alternatives: Funding or amplifying media stories that question the viability, safety, or reliability of renewable alternatives (i.e., “EVs are dangerous,” “Heat pumps don’t work in winter”).
- Confusing the Public: Flooding the public sphere with mixed messages about science, timelines, and policy effectiveness to paralyze action.
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Real-World Examples of Predatory Delay
Predatory delay is visible across sectors and scales. Notable offenders include oil and gas companies, agricultural lobbies, and political actors. Here are some illustrative examples:
- Shell Oil’s Communications: Documents released in the US indicate Shell systematically told staff to frame net-zero emissions as a distant, shared goal—thus relieving the company of concrete accountability.
- Fossil Fuel Expansion: Oil majors continue to invest in new fossil fuel infrastructure despite scientific consensus that existing reserves alone can push us past safe climate thresholds.
- AI as “Green Solution”: Advocates promote technology like AI as a panacea for climate ills, even as it enables entrenched practices (e.g., automating pesticide distribution in agriculture, which locks farmers into ecologically harmful systems) and postpones necessary systemic reform.
- Public Relations Front Groups: Vested interests fund supposedly grassroots organizations or experts to speak against climate action or spread doubts about clean energy.
Why Predatory Delay Matters
Predatory delay amplifies harm in several ways:
- Accelerates Damage: Every additional year of delay locks in more emissions, more irreversible ecosystem losses, and heightened risks for people worldwide.
- Jeopardizes Social Justice: The consequences of delay disproportionately affect vulnerable populations—now and in future generations—while benefits accrue to those with existing power and resources.
- Reduces Options: As time passes without meaningful change, available pathways to a safe and just future shrink dramatically.
- Undermines Trust: The tactic generates widespread cynicism, erodes trust in institutions, civic debate, and democracy itself.
Put simply, the cost of delay is measurable and multi-generational. Today’s inaction means greater hardship, expense, and risk for future societies.
Predatory Delay vs. Climate Denial
| Climate Denial | Predatory Delay |
|---|---|
| Rejects climate science outright | Accepts science, but resists urgent solutions |
| Often dismissed as fringe/extreme | Presents as rational, pragmatic, and reformist |
| Limited influence in mainstream institutions | Widely adopted by business, finance, and politics |
| Undermines basic facts | Obscures necessity or timelines for action |
How Predatory Delay Sustains Itself
The persistence of predatory delay is powered by a range of sectors and actors, often working in unison:
- Industry Groups: Central organizing hubs for developing talking points and mobilizing lobbying resources.
- Political Actors: Elected officials seeking to appease donors or avoid difficult reforms wield “pragmatic caution” as a shield.
- Media and Communications: PR agencies and so-called “thought leaders” shape news cycles, public debates, and even regulatory inquiries.
- Financial Institutions: Banks and investors may pledge long-term environmental leadership but continue backing high-carbon developments in the short term.
Case Study: The Role of PR in Delay
PR agencies are routinely hired to place stories in influential outlets casting doubt on clean energy, amplifying rare negative events (e.g., EV fires), and spotlighting technological uncertainties. These narratives reinforce the sense that the risk of rapid transition outweighs its benefits—sowing confusion and apathy among the public and policymakers.
Consequences of Predatory Delay
The impacts are not hypothetical; they are felt now and will be more severe:
- Continued rise in global greenhouse gas emissions.
- Escalating climate disasters (heatwaves, floods, wildfires).
- Deepening economic inequities as the poor and marginalized suffer first and worst.
- Lost opportunity for sustainable innovation and job creation.
- Long-term erosion of public confidence in climate solutions and science.
Countering Predatory Delay: What Can Be Done?
Although predatory delay is a sophisticated and flexible tactic, there are strategies for resisting and diminishing its power:
- Expose and Name the Tactic: Making the mechanics of delay visible creates accountability and empowers advocates to act more decisively.
- Demand Specific Commitments: Insist that corporations and governments make measurable, transparent, and near-term pledges—not vague long-term ambitions.
- Strengthen Independent Oversight: Empower watchdogs, whistleblowers, and investigative journalists to uncover misleading PR, lobbying, and financial links.
- Elevate Public Participation: Strengthen local democracy, civic engagement, and inclusive climate planning to counterbalance elite capture.
- Promote Just and Immediate Transitions: Shift the focus from technological optimism and market solutions to immediate justice-centered reforms that benefit communities and ecosystems now.
The Limitations of Language
Some critics, including environmental communicators, note that the term “predatory delay” may not communicate its meaning clearly to broader audiences. Alternatives like “brownwashing” (used for groups exaggerating their environmental credentials while avoiding change) or straightforward messaging may be necessary to spark broader engagement.
Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs)
Q: How is predatory delay different from ordinary bureaucratic slowdowns?
A: Predatory delay is intentional and strategic. It’s deployed to protect vested interests—not just due to inefficiency, process, or neglect.
Q: Who are the biggest practitioners of predatory delay?
A: Major fossil fuel companies, allied industry groups, certain politicians, and their PR/lobbying partners are leading players. However, similar tactics can be found in many sectors threatened by fast-paced reforms.
Q: Can new technology accelerate climate action, or does it risk fueling predatory delay?
A: Innovative technology can support climate solutions, but hyping its potential is often used to justify postponing needed action today. A focus on “potential” rather than “proven” progress is a hallmark of predatory delay.
Q: What are signs that a company or government is engaging in predatory delay?
A: Watch for vague timelines (“someday”), shifting responsibility to others, emphasizing uncertainty or downside risks, and PR campaigns that create confusion rather than clarity.
Q: Why does predatory delay remain so successful?
A: The strategy’s sophistication, massive resources, and control over information make it a formidable barrier. Public awareness, strong media oversight, and policy transparency are critical to overcoming it.
Conclusion: The Moral Cost of Delay
At its core, predatory delay is a moral hazard—it trades away the future for the convenience and profit of the present. As Alex Steffen and climate advocates warn, those who engineer and profit from delay are not just defending their own interests, but inflicting measurable and growing harm on society and the planet. Reckoning with this reality is the essential first step toward breaking free of incrementalism and pursuing authentically transformative climate action that secures a just future for all.
References
- https://www.terrainfirma.co.uk/predatory-delay-how-dirty-money-stops-clean-energy/
- https://www.climateandcapitalmedia.com/the-worlds-10-most-dangerous-predatory-climate-delayers/
- https://ainowinstitute.org/publications/predatory-delay-and-other-myths-of-sustainable-ai
- https://alexsteffen.substack.com/p/predatory-delay
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