Environmental politics and the populist challenge

How can environmental politics effectively counter populist and anti-democratic interventions? The project provides practical scientific advice on this question. The main objective of the project is to develop an implementable strategy to strengthen environmental policy against populist and anti-democratic interventions.

Based on a literature rewiew and expert interviews, the project team analyses and evaluates phenomena of populism and anti-democracy in the context of environmental policy. In particular, it examines definitions, manifestations, motivations, causes and effects. On this basis, a strategy will be developed to enable political and administrative actors to take proactive action against mobilisation activities from the populist side. At the same time, the strategy is intended to win over those involved in climate and environmental policy to support democratic processes. The strategy will be developed in several workshops with "changemakers" from the environmental administration of the federal and state governments, environmental associations and other institutions and discussed with multipliers and a project advisory board. The project team evaluates the strategy development process during the project.

In addition, a digital information service is being developed in the project. It supports environmental policy actors in the long term in countering populist and anti-democratic attempts to intervene in environmental protection.