Climate Populism on the Left? Conceptualizing the possibilities of a populist-left-wing climate politics in light of the Green New Deal

Populism research increasingly emphasizes the relationship between populism, climate change, and climate policy, and the political tensions between populist politicization and technocratic de-politicization of climate change. The impacts of right-wing populist’s impact on climate policies has received particular attention. In the US case, while the presidency of Donald Trump received tremendous attention in general, it also represented a culmination of the development in the Republican Party, for which climate skepticism has meanwhile become a major policy platform. At the same time, there has been growing interest in political and social sciences on the possibility of an emerging left-wing populism, though only slightly in connection with climate policy. However, especially recent developments precisely in the US case invite a closer inspection of the emergence and possibilities of a left-wing climate populism. This paper explores the relationship between left-wing populism and climate policy. To this end, it briefly recapitulates the basic characteristics of populism and its left-wing variants. Secondly, it examines plausible left-wing populist linkages to climate change mitigation as well as possible contradictions (such as the tension between populist producerism and ecological austerity). The main section investigates current political approaches to climate change and their significance for left-wing populism based on recent cases in the United States and the Green New Deal in particular. Finally, the paper discusses whether climate change could be a solid platform for left-wing populism at all, and whether the US case provides indications of an emerging left-wing climate populism and how far it is likely to be transferrable to other contexts.