On 25 and 26 June 2026, the London School of Economics and Political Science (LSE) invited the director of the Interdisciplinary Observatory on Climate Change, Prof. Carlos R. S. Milani, to take part in the seminar The Politics of Climate Backlash. Held during London Climate Action Week 2026 (LCAW), the event brought together experts from various fields to examine the driving factors and consequences of the current backlash against ambitious climate and environmental policies: from distributional conflicts surrounding the costs of the green transition to the role of anti-establishment sentiment and the rejection of established scientific knowledge; including the debate on the rise of far-right parties to power at national and regional levels and the crisis in environmental multilateralism.

Organised by Robert Falkner (International Relations/LSE) and Irene Bucelli (Public Policy/LSE), the seminar provided a forum for the presentation and discussion of ten papers on the various dimensions and actors involved in the rollback of climate policies – in the UK, other European countries, the US and Brazil – which are currently being prepared for publication in the journal LSE Public Policy Review. Among the selected papers, OIMC researcher Polianna de Almeida Portela (IESP-UERJ) has co-authored a study with Prof. Milani on the relationship between climate policy rollbacks and developmentalism in Brazil. The special issue of the prestigious British journal is due to be published in February 2027.