Welfare State Responses to Social Risks in Times of Climate Change (WELRISCC)

Project holder

Katharina Zimmermann (Hamburg University)

Project Description

The climate crisis poses urgent challenges: achieving global ecological sustainability while ensuring human well-being. Social protection systems play a pivotal role in this process. Paradoxically, in Europe, these systems are simultaneously confronted by severe environmental threats and new social risks, while also contributing to these challenges through their dependence on and legitimacy tied to economic growth.

WELRISCC investigates how European welfare states address these challenges and manage the social risks arising from climate change. Specifically, the project examines how 16 European welfare states respond to 'third-generation social risks' associated with climate change. These risks are categorized into:

• Direct social risks: arising from immediate environmental threats such as droughts or floods (e.g., health crises, loss of property)
• Indirect social risks: stemming from policy measures aimed at climate mitigation and adaptation (e.g., regressive impacts of carbon taxes on low-income households)

From a comparative welfare state perspective, the project hypothesizes that country-specific approaches to these risks are shaped by existing institutions, interests, and ideas. By combining previously disconnected debates and methodologies, WELRISCC creates innovative datasets and provides fresh theoretical insights.

The project aims to:

• Map current welfare state responses to climate-related social risks across Europe
• Explain the variation in these responses by identifying underlying institutional and policy drivers
• Develop new theoretical approaches for studying the interplay between climate change and welfare states

Led by an interdisciplinary team with diverse European expertise, WELRISCC delivers comprehensive and cutting-edge insights into the role of welfare states in addressing the climate crisis.

French Team

• Bruno Palier (CNRS, CEE, LIEPP) - principal investigator
• Anne-Laure Beaussier (CNRS, CSO, LIEPP)
• Tom Chevalier (CNRS, laboratoire Arènes, LIEPP)
• Catherine Spieser (CNRS, Lise-CNAM, LIEPP)
• Benoît Giry (laboratoire Arènes)

International Partners 

• Maša Filipovič Hrast (University of Ljubljana)
• Vincent Gengnagel (Europa-Universität Flensburg)
• Arvid Lindh (SOFI Stockholm)
• Kenneth Nelson (Oxford)
• Bruno Palier (LIEPP, Sciences Po Paris)

Cooperation Partners

• Sonja Avlijaš (University of Belgrade)
• Marta Kahancová (CELSI Bratislava), Adeline Otto (KU Leuven)
• Mi Ah Schøyen (OsloMet)
• Caroline de la Porte (Copenhagen Business School)
• Zhen Im (Copenhagen Business School)

Founding

This research was funded by CHANSE

Project Duration

03/2025 – 02/2027