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

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.