Climate Change, Inequality, and Policy Contestation workshop

The Department of Social Policy in partnership with the and Sustainable Social Policy and Welfare States Research Hub at the London School of Economics and Political Science hosted a workshop on "Climate Change, Inequality, and Policy Contestation" from Monday 10th - Tuesday 11th November 2025.

As a warming planet redraws political and economic landscapes, new distributional impacts — both within and between societies — are becoming crucial for understanding prospects for meaningful climate action. This workshop invited papers that speak to how the distributional impacts of climate change and a changing environment shape society, welcoming contributions from economics, political science, public and social policy, sociology, and cognate fields.

The workshop opened on Monday 10th November with a public keynote lecture from Helen Milner (Princeton) on her new book with Alexander F. Gazmararian (Michigan) entitled "Fault Lines: The New Political Economy of a Warming World".

In this lecture, Helen Milner addressed why vulnerability, lived experience, and material self-interest will drive the next phase of climate politics, and what that means for diplomacy, democracy and development.
Listen to the podcast here
Watch the video here

This was followed by a full day of paper presentations on Tuesday 11th November with a closing dinner.