A Double Backlash? The Effect of Right-Wing Populist and Green Parties on Climate Policy Production in Europe

There is increasing support for populist parties around the globe and increasing evidence that this may fuel backlash to climate policy. Research suggests that populist attitudes are deemed key for explaining climate change skepticism while right-wing populist parties have detrimental effects on greenhouse gas emissions and climate policy production. At the same time, however, there is also increasing support for green parties, the arguably strongest advocates of ambitious climate policy while empirical research remains divided about positive green party effects on climate policy. This bipolar setting begs the question whether and how the two party families, and competition between them, affect climate policy production. The present paper addresses this question. Building on a comprehensive cross-national dataset, it studies the impact of populist and green parties inside and outside of government on climate policy production in 22 European democracies between 1990 and 2020. The results suggest that increased electoral competition from right-wing populist parties can drive additional climate policy efforts of green parties. These results have important implications for our understanding of partisan competition and effects in climate policy-making.