Green Backlash and Its Consequences for Democracy and Policy
In this essay—part of an ongoing IGCC series on Climate Change, Green Backlash, and Democracy—Austin Beacham, a postdoctoral fellow at the Georgia Institute of Technology and alumnus of IGCC’s dissertation fellowship, asserts that we are only beginning to see the economic, political, and social consequences of climate change, and that there is much we still do not know about how these dynamics may shift as climate impacts intensify.
DownloadClimate change threatens lives and livelihoods even in democratic societies, but policies to address this threat are subject to political backlash that can lead to negative societal consequences down the line. But what makes climate problems so difficult for democratic countries to solve?
In this essay, Austin Beacham, a postdoctoral fellow at the Sam Nunn School of International Affairs at the Georgia Institute of Technology, identifies climate change as an existentially distributive conflict that creates new winners and losers on a scale unprecedented in human history, contributing to the existence of backlash. Beacham asserts that we are only beginning to see the consequences of this conflict economically, politically, and socially, and that there remain many unknowns about how the distributional dynamics of climate policy will shift as climate change intensifies.
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On January 30–31, 2025, IGCC convened a first-of-its-kind research incubator to examine the links between climate change, democratic backsliding, and public backlash against green policies. The conversation aimed to bridge the divide between scholars within the political and climate sciences to promote interdisciplinary studies at the crossroads between global environmental and governance challenges. Workshop participants prepared memos before the meeting responding to two questions: under which conditions can climate change and climate policies trigger a green backlash? And what are the consequences of climate change disruptions and green backlash for democracy? These memos are now published as part of an ongoing IGCC essay series on Climate Change, Green Backlash, and Democracy.