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Who Pays, Who Benefits? The Distributive Consequences of Climate and Environmental Policy

Mini-Conference

Date: 12-13th November 2026

Venue: London School of Economics and Political Science
Convenor: Dr Liam F. Beiser-McGrath (LSE)
Application deadline: 28 June 2026

The LSE’s Global School of Sustainability, in collaboration with the Sustainable Social Policy and Welfare States Research Hub at the Department of Social Policy, are accepting paper proposals for a 2-day mini-conference to be held on the 12-13th November 2026.

Climate change is not only an environmental crisis but a distributive one. As governments pursue decarbonisation and protect the environment, the costs and benefits of policy fall unevenly across regions, income groups, sectors, and countries. Carbon pricing can impose regressive burdens on lower-income households. Green industrial policy creates new economic winners while displacing established industries and their workforces. Communities in the Global South face the greatest physical risks from climate change and environmental degradation while often contributing least to its causes and possessing the fewest resources to adapt. These distributional dynamics are generating new patterns of contestation that speak to emerging debates in social policy and climate politics.

This mini-conference brings together an international community of researchers to examine the policy and politics of climate change through a distributive lens. It asks who bears the costs of decarbonisation and environmental (in)action, who captures its benefits, and how these distributional stakes shape the coalitions, public attitudes, and institutional arrangements that determine whether ambitious climate action is politically sustainable. By centring questions of inequality, compensation, social protection, and political feasibility, the mini-conference positions climate policy as a core concern for the future of social policy scholarship.

Themes

We particularly invite paper submissions addressing any of the following five thematic areas, although this is not a strict requirement. Submissions that bridge themes, take comparative or cross-regional perspectives, or engage substantively with the Global South are particularly welcome.

1. Inequality and the politics of climate policy

2. Cities, public goods, and climate adaptation

3. Welfare states, eco-social policy, and the green transition

4. Climate risk, migration, and vulnerability

5. International and comparative political economy of climate action

Format

The mini-conference runs over two days and combines paper panels with structured reflections from invited scholars. Each thematic block consists of a traditional panel of paper presentations with Q&A, followed by an extended reflection from the invited speaker for that block as well as time for joint discussion on current and future research in these areas.
There is no conference fee and refreshments and food will be provided during the conference, as well as a conference dinner.

Confirmed Speakers

  • Federica Genovese (University of Oxford)
  • Vally Koubi (ETH Zurich/University of Bern)
  • Aseem Prakash (Georgetown University)
  • Isabelle Stadelmann-Steffen (University of Bern)
  • Alice Xu (University of Pennsylvania)

Poster Track

Depending on the volume of submissions and available funding, we may also organise a poster session as part of the program. Applicants who would like to be considered for the poster track in addition to the paper panels should indicate this on their submission. Indicating an interest in presenting at the poster session will not affect the decision made about your paper presentation submission.

Funding for Early Career Researchers

Limited support is available for early career researchers without access to research funding travelling to London for the mini-conference. Applicants who would like to be considered for accommodation support should indicate this on their submission and provide a brief justification of need.

Applications

To apply, please submit:

  • A paper title and abstract of up to 500 words
  • An indication of the primary thematic block your paper addresses
  • Whether you would like to be considered for the poster track
  • Whether you wish to be considered for ECR support

Applications should be submitted through this form: https://forms.gle/Vv8f4K2uvCGMeoAd6 by 28 June 2026.