Keeping Climate Populism in Check: A New Perspective on Public Acceptability of Net-Zero Policies

How damages, economic impacts and policy responses jointly shape the politics of climate change remains poorly understood. In this article, we synthesise the recent wealth of empirical contributions on political outcomes from damages and mitigation policy with a focus on populism. We present a framework connecting climate policies and climate-induced extreme weather events to populist demand, addressing how the rise of populism shapes feasibility of climate policies. The framework comprises income effects, changes in the physical and social environment, behavioural restrictions and symbolic motives induced by climate damages and mitigation measures. We argue that how these elements translate into populist demand depends on both policy design – such as compensation and policy sequencing – and institutional context – such as media framing, procedural inclusion, crisis management and political competition. Climate policies and broader communication on net-zero goals should be designed to prevent climate damages and policy from becoming drivers of populism.