A green backlash is sweeping across the U.S. and Europe

In the wake of a U.S. crusade against mission-driven investments, signs of a green political backlash in Europe appear to be gathering pace.

State laws restricting the use of environmental, social and governance factors have swept across the U.S. in recent months, fomenting uncertainty for an increasing range of businesses.

In Florida, Republican Gov. Ron DeSantis signed a bill into law in early May that barred state and local officials from investing public money to promote ESG goals and prohibited municipalities from selling ESG bonds. “We do not want them engaged on these ideological joyrides,” DeSantis reportedly said at the time.

Analysts expect the outcome of next year’s U.S. presidential election to determine whether the political backlash against ESG will have a deep and lasting effect.

A pushback against climate policies is not just a U.S. issue. In Europe, indications of a green backlash — or “greenlash” — have started surfacing as businesses and citizens feel the costs of the energy transition.

Nathalie Tocci, director of Istituto Affari Internazionali, an Italian international relations think tank, told CNBC that the weaponization of climate issues from traditionally skeptical political parties was nothing new.

“This is really a story of the last couple of years, but I think it is really picking up steam now,” Tocci said.

Reprisals over climate policies come at a time of record-breaking extreme heat across the globe, with July poised to be the hottest month in human history.

It prompted U.N. chief António Guterres to signal, “The era of global warming has ended; the era of global boiling has arrived.”

In the U.K., London mayor Sadiq Khan’s push to expand a contentious Ultra Low Emission Zone policy across the entire city has sparked an economy vs. climate fight — as well as a green identity crisis among Britain’s major political parties.

Dutch farmers have been staging protests over stringent limits on nitrogen emissions, with the BBB or BoerBurgerBeweging (Farmer-Citizen Movement) party lashing out at what it sees as a policy that symbolizes “everything that is not going right” in the country.

In Poland, the…