The Role of Political Attention in Moderating the Association between Political Identities and Anthropogenic Climate Change Belief in Britain

John Kenny

doi:10.1177/0032321720928261

Abstract

US research shows that the partisan divide among elites on climate change has been mirrored by division at the citizen level, with this division being especially prominent among more politically engaged citizens. Using British Election Study data from 2016, this article examines whether a similar phenomenon is occurring in Britain, a country that experienced an increase in climate sceptic media coverage in the aftermath of the passing of the 2008 Climate Change Act. The results show that UK Independence Party and Conservative Party partisans as well as Leavers who pay more attention to politics are less likely to believe in the existence of anthropogenic climate change in contrast to Labour Party partisans and Remainers where increased political attention is associated with greater belief. These findings point to the inherent difficulties of bringing public beliefs on climate change in line with the scientific consensus in the presence of divided elite cues.

Highlights

This article examines anthropogenic climate change belief in Britain with a particular focus on the moderating role of political attention
I present the distribution of responses to the climate change belief question. This shows that 62% of individuals believe that climate change is occurring due to human activity, 18% believe climate change is occurring but not due to human activity, 5% do not believe that the climate is changing at all and 16% don’t know
This article has demonstrated a number of important insights into belief in anthropogenic climate change in Britain

Summary

Introduction

This article examines anthropogenic climate change belief in Britain with a particular focus on the moderating role of political attention. With the negative consequences of continued global warming resulting from human activity – including the loss of biodiversity, rising sea-levels and more extreme droughts and heatwaves – the scientific community recommends that action to mitigate against such occurrences is taken urgently When it comes to implementing such policies, government action has lagged behind. The disjunction between the scientific consensus and public belief is likely playing an intermediary role in holding back progress on implementing the climate change policies that are required to limit increases in global surface temperature. This all ties in with the diverging elite cues that such individuals are receiving on the subject and suggests – like has been occurring in the United States (Brulle et al, 2012) – that elites play a substantial role in shaping individuals’ climate change beliefs

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Results

Conclusion