Dr Leon Sealey-Huggins
Last modified: July 30, 2026
About
PhD in Sociology of Climate Breakdown
About the organisation(s) I've worked for
Organisation name:
War on WantAbout my experience and expertise
Personal statement:
Leon Sealey-Huggins is a Senior Campaigner in Global Climate Justice at War on Want. Here he leads on the Just Equitable and Ecological Transitions strand of work. This includes interventions at the UNFCCC climate talks alongside partners from the global climate justice movement.
Leon is also a Visiting Fellow in Global Sustainable Development at the University of Warwick where he was until recently an Assistant Professor, and Honorary Senior Fellow in the Sarah Parker Remond Centre, University College London.
Leon’s IPCC-cited scholarship and activism focus on climate justice, asking what kinds of societies we must co-create as we face up to climate breakdown. Leon considers the sociology and politics of the climate crisis, investigating what climate justice means in the context of global historical, and present, inequalities.
Collaboration opportunities:
I am available for commissions, consultancy, media work and speaking engagements on the themes mentioned across my profile.
Publications:
‘Racial capitalism and climate justice: White redemptive power and the uneven geographies of eco-imperial crisis’, https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S0016718523000982, 2023, co-authored with Keston Perry, Geoforum
”The Climate Crisis is a Racist Crisis’: Structural Racism, Inequality and Climate Change’, https://wrap.warwick.ac.uk/id/eprint/103485/, 2018, in The Fire Now: Anti-racist scholarship in times of explicit racial violence, Edited by Azeezat Johnson, Remi Joseph-Salisbury and Beth Kamunge, Zed Books, Chapter 10.
‘‘1.5oC to stay alive’: Climate change, imperialism and justice for the Caribbean’, https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/01436597.2017.13680132017, Third World Quarterly
‘Depoliticised activism? Ambivalence and pragmatism at the COP16’, https://wrap.warwick.ac.uk/80755/4/WRAP-depoliticised-activism-pragmatism-Sealey-Huggins-2016.pdf, 2016, International Journal of Sociology and Social Policy
‘Movements and Moments for Climate Justice: From Copenhagen to Cancun via Cochabamba’, https://web.archive.org/web/20250110112801/https://acme-journal.org/index.php/acme/article/view/916 co-authored with Bertie Russell and Andre Pusey, 2012, in ACME: An International E- Journal for Critical Geographies, Vol 11, Iss 1, p15-32
Other projects and networks:
Just Transition network email newsletter (sign up via mailchip) https://mailchi.mp/c48925eb2604/issue-1-jt-network-newsletter?e=ab7528433d
‘Deal or no deal?’ Exploring the potential, limits and potential limits of Green New Deals, https://www.common-wealth.org/reports/deal-or-no-deal-exploring-the-potential-limits-and-potential-limits-of-green-new-deals, 2021 Common Wealth [Report]
‘The Rise of Nationalism: Lessons from Europe’, https://cic.nyu.edu/wp-content/uploads/1662/65/the_rise_of_nationalism_lessons_from_europe-2022.pdf 2022, co-authored with Sivamohan Valluvan, Pathfinders for Peaceful, Just and Inclusive Societies, New York: Center on International Cooperation. [Report]
The Rift, Episode 14: Imperialism and Ecological Breakdown https://www.spreaker.com/episode/episode-14-imperialism-and-ecological-breakdown-with-leon-sealey-huggins–66359795 [Podcast]
Hierarchies of Development podcast – Developing Economics: A Critical Perspective On Development Economics https://developingeconomics.org/2022/05/04/hierarchies-of-development-podcast/ [Podcast]
