Socio-demographic Differences in Environmental Concern and Willingness to Pay for Addressing Global Climate Change in Pakistan

Abstract

Previous research indicates that socio-demographic attributes are important predictors of environmental concern. However, this research mainly focused on Western societies, with minimal representation of non-Western contexts. In this article, we argue that a stronger representation of non-Western societies is necessary for a more global understanding of pro-environmentalism. On this basis, we explored socio-demographic differences in environmental concern and willingness to pay for addressing climate change in Pakistan. We aimed to assess demographic trends in public perceptions of environmental problems in the Pakistan, and their level of convergence with Western-derived theories of the social bases of environmental concern. Although our findings are largely congruent with trends previously observed in Western contexts, we found some divergent demographic patterns in environmental concern among Pakistanis that are likely the result of a number of contextual influences that prevail in Pakistan and other similar developing countries.