What makes climate change a populist issue?

Migration, identity and the distribution of wealth and power were some of the key mobilising themes for movements classed as populist over the 2010s. This paper examines the potential of climate change to be drawn into populist politics, as a factor that aggravates existing concerns and one that raises new questions. Populism, the paper suggests, finds resonance in the critique of political necessity, and prospers in emergency settings where policy is rationalised in these terms. As global warming comes to be framed as an emergency, it becomes a natural target for populist critique. The paper’s aim is to shed light on the politics of climate change, as well as to revisit what populism is and how much utility the concept retains.