Deconstructing Climate Inaction: A Noesological Approach to Environmental Governance and Cognitive Barriers

Despite decades of scientific advancement, international negotiations, and growing public awareness, climate governance continues to experience persistent delays between knowledge production and transformative action. The contemporary climate challenge is therefore not simply a deficit of scientific understanding or technological capability; it reflects deeper cognitive, institutional, and civilizational barriers that influence how societies perceive risks, organize priorities, and imagine possible futures. This article applies a Noesological approach to climate inaction, extending previous developments of Noesology as a framework concerned with cognitive architectures, mental systems, and collective intelligence. From this perspective, climate governance failures are interpreted as manifestations of a profound mismatch between human cognitive structures and the nonlinear dynamics of the Earth system.Drawing on insights from Earth system science, cognitive science, behavioral economics, complexity theory, and sustainability transitions research, this article argues that climate inaction emerges from multiple interacting cognitive mechanisms, including temporal discounting, complexity blindness, institutional lock-in, dominant development paradigms, fragmented knowledge systems, and collective forms of denial. These mechanisms prevent societies from translating scientific knowledge into adequate systemic responses. The article proposes that climate transformation requires not only technological innovation and institutional reform but also a reconfiguration of collective cognitive architectures capable of perceiving planetary interdependence and long-term consequences.A Noesological perspective contributes to environmental governance by shifting attention from the question of information transmission toward the deeper question of cognitive transformation. It suggests that planetary stewardship requires the emergence of new mental models, governance capacities, and forms of collective intelligence aligned with Earth system realities.