Climate Conflict and Political Mobilisations: Emotions and Inequality in Environmental Politics

Abstract: Climate change has become a major site of political and ideological conflict in contemporary democracies. Once dominated by progressive and green movements, environmental politics is now contested by far-right and right-wing populist actors who reinterpret ecological issues through nationalist, conspiratorial, or exclusionary frames. From climate scepticism to “green nationalism,” and from social-media mobilisation to protests against the Green Deal, ecological debates expose deep tensions around democracy, inequality, and identity. This Section brings together scholars studying how parties, movements, and citizens mobilise and emotionally engage with environmental issues. It examines how political forces construct climate narratives, how digital media shape emotional and conspiratorial discourses, and how inequalities and discontent are politicised in times of ecological transition and instrumentalised by populist and far-right actors. By linking research on participation, mobilisation, social movements, political emotions, environmental politics, and far-right studies, the Section advances an integrated understanding of how climate change reshapes democracy, identities, and collective action. Rationale: Environmental politics has become a crucial field of polarisation. The Green Deal, energy transitions, and agricultural reforms have triggered mobilisation ranging from climate activism to farmers’ protests. Far-right actors exploit these conflicts by presenting themselves as defenders of “ordinary people” against cosmopolitan elites and “green tyranny.” Social media intensifies these divides, spreading emotional narratives of fear, resentment, and betrayal that intertwine climate scepticism with populist distrust of institutions. The section welcomes diverse theoretical and conceptual approaches across political sociology, contentious politics, environmental politics, and communication studies. It builds on research into the affective, ideological, and socio-economic dimensions of climate conflict. By focusing on the far right, it highlights how emotional and moral framings of environmental issues shape perceptions of justice, belonging, and legitimacy, potentially contributing to new political identifications. Four analytical axes structure the Section: 1. Far-right environmentalism: redefinition of ecological concerns through nationalism, protectionism, and identity politics. 2. Digital communication and climate narratives: the role of social media and conspiracy narratives in spreading polarisation and mistrust. 3. Contentious climate politics: mobilisation across farmers’ protests, youth movements, and emerging movement-parties, including intersections with gender and labour. 4. Inequality, emotions and policy: how perceptions of fairness and exclusion shape responses to climate policies, especially across social, cultural, and political peripheries. By weaving these dimensions together, the Section contributes to ECPR debates on democracy, populism, and sustainability, fostering interdisciplinary dialogue and comparative perspectives. It welcomes pluralist and innovative methods, as well as panel and paper proposals from various sub-disciplines, with methodological diversity and scopes ranging from case studies to comparative work. Proposed Panels: Panel 1. Far-Right Politics and Climate Change: Identity, Emotions, and Mobilisation Chairs: Balsa Lubarda (Pompeu Fabra University) and Imogen Richards (Deakin University) This panel gathers contributions on the evolving relationship between the far right and the environment. It examines how far-right actors construct environmental narratives from denial to “green nationalism” and the emotional strategies underpinning them. It explores links between ecological themes, sovereignty, identity, and moral order, with attention to the aesthetic politics of new far-right environmentalism. Panel 2. Climate Change, Social Media, and Conspiracy Chair: Hans Joerg Trenz (Scuola Normale Superiore) This panel analyses how social media amplifies conspiratorial and emotional framings of climate change. Topics may include algorithmic amplification, influencer networks, or counter-narratives promoting hope and collective resilience. Panel 3. Farmers’ Protests, Populism, and Environmental Backlash Chairs: Manuela Caiani and Giovanni Starita (Scuola Normale Superiore) Farmers’ mobilisations have become symbols of resistance to climate policy and perceived environmental injustice. This panel investigates how rural identities and emotions are politicised by populist or far-right actors in the context of the green transition. Panel 4. ‘Movement-Parties’, Labour, and Environmental Mobilisation Chairs: Anria Santiago (Cornell University) and Eduardo Alvares Pereira (Scuola Normale Superiore) This panel examines how movement-parties and new hybrid formations bridge grassroots activism and institutional politics. It analyses how these actors articulate struggles for climate justice, labour rights, and democratic participation, exploring synergies and tensions in projects of social transformation. Special attention is given to conflicts within sociological, cultural, political, and geographical peripheries. Panel 5. Gendered Political Participation in the Climate Crisis: Power, Care, and Resistance Chair: Linda Coufal (Charles University) This panel explores how gendered experiences shape environmental politics. It welcomes research on care, vulnerability, and resistance, and on how feminist and intersectional perspectives transform climate discourse and activism. Panel 6. (Emotional) Conflicts around Energy Transitions in Europe: Policy Narratives and Policymaking Dynamics Chair: Sonja Blum and Nora Habelitz (Bielefeld University) Energy transitions trigger heated public debate and emotional responses. This panel investigates how politics shape policy narratives and decisions around renewable energy, energy poverty, and public resistance to decarbonisation. Panel 7. Climate Policy Design in Times of Political Contestation Chair: Jale Tosun (Heidelberg University) As climate policies face political contestation, a fundamental question emerges: should climate policies be designed for durability - insulated from short term political pressures through long term committments and institutional lock ins - or should they embrace agility, allowing for continous adaptation in response to public discontent and changing political landscapes? This panel examines this policy dilemma through the lens of contemporary climate politics and climate policy. Among the guiding questions: Can climate policies be designed to resist populist backlash? Can adaptive climate policies address grievances about inequality and economic disruption while maintaining climate ambitions? How might agile approaches prevent the emotional narratives of fear, resentment and betrayal that far right actors exploit on social media? Panel 8: (Creative) Methods to Approach Climate Change Politics Chairs: Ipek Demirsu Di Biase (Scuola Normale Superiore) and Nicolò Pennucci (Université de Namur) This panel explores how innovative methodological approaches can deepen our understanding of contemporary climate change politics across the ideological spectrum. As climate debates grow increasingly polarized, researchers need tools that illuminate not only policy positions but also the emotions, narratives, and symbolic practices that drive public opinion, thereby shaping citizens’ political engagement. The panel invites research on the perception of climate change and climate-related policies that employ: ethnographic and qualitative methods art-based and creative methods (visual analysis) computational methods