Abstract: Populism, particularly from the right, is generally considered a threat, not only to democracy but also to climate action. At the same time, political theorists like Laclau and Mouffe have advocated for a form of environmental populism to democratically tackle global environmental threats like climate change. They juxtapose their attempt to ‘reclaim’ populism with modes of depoliticisation, techno-optimism, and science-driven politics that resonate with the dominant framings of the Anthropocene. In this chapter, I unpack these tensions by drawing the lines between different ideas of populism and the Anthropocene. I explain how populism closes down, but also opens up democratic avenues in the ‘human age’. On the one hand, a populist framing depicts environmental politics as a cosmopolitan elite agenda against the ‘ordinary people’. On the other hand, populism can problematise politics and power in environmental governance, bring back marginalised voices, and democratise discourses around global anthropogenic threats like climate change.

Available at Edward Elgar (https://www.elgaronline.com/edcollchap/book/9781802208955/chapter19.xml?tab_body=abstract-copy1).