Social Protection Against Environmental Risks and Disasters: a Research Agenda for Welfare States in the Age of Climate Change

What does it mean for states to protect populations in the age of climate change? As environmental risks are becoming more frequent and severe, with increasing social and economic consequences, the ability of states to protect populations is challenged. Despite growing debates about eco-social risks and policies, or the alignment between welfare states, growth regimes and climate change mitigation, the question of how to protect societies against environmental risks and disasters has received scant attention in social policy and welfare state studies. This article advances a research agenda for conceptualizing social protection against environmental risks. We identify several avenues for research that contribute to understanding the specific logics of socialisation of environmental risks and the policies that protect populations against their impacts. We discuss these policies from an empirical, comparative and theoretical perspective, how they relate to social policies, and how climate change is turning environmental risk into a political issue for welfare states.