The Populist Challenge to the EU’s Sustainability Policy: Is “More Science” a Legitimate and Viable Response?

Abstract

Perhaps more than any other policy area today, environmental sustainability and climate mitigation are in the focus of European Union politics and policy. Significant efforts are being made to achieve progress toward an economy based on resource-saving and environmentally sound practices rather than the use of ever more resources and pollution. Populism is among those factors that counteract this high-level political project of ecological modernization. While the phenomenon of populism tends to escape a clear definition, many observers have ascertained the importance of climate policy in populist discourse. In that regard, populism is usually assumed to cover a spectrum of positions roughly between the outright denial of climate change, and skepticism toward the technological changes involved with the pursuit of climate protection and higher levels of environmental sustainability. On different levels, populist political forces have access to EU-level politics and decision-making procedures. There is, hence, a certain risk for the implementation of the EU’s policies. While EU sustainability policy is entering a new round, the influence of populism appears to be growing. If the EU’s climate goals are to be realized, its institutions and those member states that support them therefore will require a strategy to meet the populist challenge. This chapter evaluates the (potential) threat of populism for EU sustainability and climate policy and discusses to what extent populists can influence the outcomes of EU-level politics on the mentioned subject. Additionally, the chapter pursues the question of whether the EU’s science programs can be part of a legitimate and viable answer to the populist challenge to the project of a sustainable Europe.