Welfare state responses to social risks in times of climate change

The climate crisis generates pressing challenges, encompassing the need for environmental sustainability while preserving and enhancing human well-being for which social protection institutions are called to play a key role.

However, on the one hand, they are confronted with severe environmental hazards and new social risks, and on the other hand, they are facing the paradox that the economic growth which fostered their development and legitimacy aggravates today´s climate crisis.WELRISCC explores how various European welfare states respond differently to these challenges and are differently equipped to address the social risks generated by the current environmental transition.

It examines how 15 European welfare states address human well-being amidst climate change.

Focussing on ´third generation social risks’ arising from changing climate, it distinguishes between a) direct social risks (i.e. stemming from immediate threats like droughts or floods; e.g. sickness or property loss), and b) indirect social risks (i.e. stemming from policies that seek to mitigate climate change; e.g. the effects of carbon taxes on lower-income brackets).

Adopting a comparative welfare state perspective, it hypothesizes that a country’s approach to these risks is influenced by established institutions, interests, and ideas that have evolved within the nation´s welfare, economic and environmental systems. This innovative project brings together so far unrelated approaches and develops new datasets.

The goal is both to map out the current landscape of responses to social risks related to climate change, and to explain this variation by forging new theoretical pathways for future studies on the interplay between climate change, welfare states, and well-being.

WELRISCC is backed by an interdisciplinary team, with diverse European expertise, who will provide timely insights into societal well-being amidst the climate crisis.