University of California Institute on Global Conflict and Cooperation

What are the consequences of electing populist leaders? This question is of continued importance as populist leaders challenge elections and impact politics across the world. While the consequences of populist electoral victories on democratic processes have been widely examined, other arenas are still being explored. The environmental policies of populist leaders are particularly important as climate change affects an increasing number of people on a global level. In this paper I show how populist radical right leaders respond to this global crisis by doubling down on economic nationalism and prioritizing national goals of development and claiming that fighting climate change is a Western imposition on domestic politics. I use a mixed methods approach that employs the most complete global data on populist leaders and their environmental stances as well as the case study of Hungary to show how populism doubles down on economic nationalism in the environmental arena.