Climate Backlash: Contentious Reactions to Policy Action (BACKLASH) Growing calls for ambitious climate change action challenge governance because such action can trigger backlash. Why do societies sometimes accept costly public good action, but at other times push back suddenly and reject it? This project will study contentious reactions to climate policy through examining both large and in-depth cases of advanced industrial countries. This will open up new approaches to the interdisciplinary study of policy-society dynamics in addressing contentious collective problems.