Climate Policy Support Research Articles

Climate policy support in the UK: An interaction of worldviews and policy types

Climate policy support in the UK: An interaction of worldviews and policy types

Consumer Support for Climate Policies Driven by Political Ideologies

Consumer support for climate policies is essential for new sustainable consumption patterns, which may face challenges considering the left-right political spectrum. This study aims to understand how different types of climate policies receive different levels of support from Liberals (Left), Moderates (Center), and Conservatives (Right). We analyzed data from an online panel with 1000 Brazilians through linear (ANOVA, MANOVA, and Correspondence Analysis) and non-linear predictive (Artificial Neural Networks) methods. Although Liberals are more concerned about overall global warming and climate change than Conservatives, both groups are more prone to support than to oppose climate change public policies. Moreover, while Moderates and Conservatives are getting more concerned about climate change, Liberals are becoming more pessimistic about mitigation strategies. Policies based on opportunity-facilitating or constraining using regulatory or economic instruments are associated differently with Liberals, Moderates, and Conservatives, indicating specific preferences for each political ideology.

Climate justice beliefs related to climate action and policy support around the world

AbstractClimate justice is increasingly prominent in climate change communication and advocacy but little is known about public understanding of the concept or how widely it resonates with different groups. In our global survey of 5,627 adults in 11 countries spanning the global north and south, most participants (66.2%) had never heard of climate justice. Nonetheless, endorsement of climate justice beliefs was widespread (for example, acknowledging the disproportionate impact of climate change on poor people and the underpinning roles of capitalism and colonialism in the climate crisis). Climate justice beliefs were also associated with various indices of climate action and policy support. These associations tended to be stronger in countries with high GHG emissions and where social inequality is also more politically salient. The results highlight the value of climate justice as a motive for climate action across diverse geographical contexts.

Understanding public acceptability of climate policies in Europe

ABSTRACT Urgent and decisive government action to mitigate greenhouse gas emissions is more likely when the proposed measures are popular among the public. This paper compares the drivers of European public support for three alternative policies to combat climate change: carbon taxation, renewable energy subsidies, and minimum energy efficiency standards that apply to household appliances. We combine survey data with regional socio-economic and environmental indicators to provide a comprehensive, comparative analysis of policy acceptance that accounts for the geographic context in which these policies would be implemented. By comparing the drivers among three climate policies, we identify a rural-urban gap in predicting public perception of carbon taxation, which does not exist in the other policies. We also found a positive relationship between regional exposure to fine particular matter (PM2.5) and public support for climate policy, providing novel insights into the influence of environmental factors on public perceptions. This research highlights the importance of environmental and socio-economic context in predicting climate policy acceptance and offers valuable implications for policymakers seeking to garner public support for effective climate change mitigation strategies.

The influence of partisan news on climate mitigation support: An investigation into the mediating role of perceived risk and efficacy.

Perceptions of efficacy play a central role in motivating people to engage in climate actions. However, there has been little investigation into how different climate efficacy beliefs are formed and how they may be associated with support for climate mitigation policies. This study, based on the motivated control framework, examines how risk perceptions may differentially be associated with four types of efficacy constructs (self-efficacy, personal outcome expectancy, collective efficacy, and collective outcome efficacy). It also places the motivated control framework in the context of the partisan information sphere and examines how exposure to partisan news may influence mitigation policy support through the mediators of risk perceptions and the efficacy constructs. Results suggest that liberal- and conservative-leaning news exposure, respectively, associate with higher and lower supports for policies. Overall, risk perception was a significant mediator, and the mediating function of efficacy varied depending on the specific construct being examined. For liberal news use, increased risk perceptions had a positive association with policy support through self-efficacy and collective outcome expectancy but also had an unexpected negative association with policy support through personal outcome expectancy and collective efficacy. For conservative news use, decreased risk perceptions resulted in further decreased beliefs of self-efficacy and collective outcome expectancy, resulting in lower levels of support for climate policies. We also find that political ideology is a significant moderator for the mediation model. Implications for climate change communication are discussed.

Rightwing populist attitudes and public support for climate policies in Western Europe: Widening the scope using the European Social Survey

Rightwing populist attitudes and public support for climate policies in Western Europe: Widening the scope using the European Social Survey

The International Climate Psychology Collaboration: Climate change-related data collected from 63 countries

Climate change is currently one of humanity’s greatest threats. To help scholars understand the psychology of climate change, we conducted an online quasi-experimental survey on 59,508 participants from 63 countries (collected between July 2022 and July 2023). In a between-subjects design, we tested 11 interventions designed to promote climate change mitigation across four outcomes: climate change belief, support for climate policies, willingness to share information on social media, and performance on an effortful pro-environmental behavioural task. Participants also reported their demographic information (e.g., age, gender) and several other independent variables (e.g., political orientation, perceptions about the scientific consensus). In the no-intervention control group, we also measured important additional variables, such as environmentalist identity and trust in climate science. We report the collaboration procedure, study design, raw and cleaned data, all survey materials, relevant analysis scripts, and data visualisations. This dataset can be used to further the understanding of psychological, demographic, and national-level factors related to individual-level climate action and how these differ across countries.

The energy crisis differentially impacted Swiss and German citizens’ energy literacy and efficiency preferences but not their support for climate policies

The energy crisis reshaped energy politics, resulted in energy price surges, increased energy capacity, and large-scale energy-saving campaigns. While an energy demand reduction was observed in Europe, little is known about how the crisis impacted citizens’ climate-relevant judgment and decisions. Here we report a preregistered two-wave cross-national study (N = 1040) spanning the winter of 2022/2023 to investigate how support for renewable energy policies, energy literacy, and energy-efficient product choices developed as this crisis unfolded. We couple longitudinal experimental data with real-world energy price data. This natural experiment indicates that energy-efficiency preferences were impacted by the salience of the crisis and real-world price signals. Changes in energy literacy were contingent on the numerical abilities of participants, suggesting that the crisis increased knowledge gaps between different groups in society. Support for renewable energy policies, and prioritization of key policy attributes, remained stable in Germany and Switzerland despite shifts in public attention and uncertainty.

The chicken or the egg? Spillover between private climate action and climate policy support

People engage in many different activities with climate consequences, including mundane everyday activities, such as eating meals and either saving or throwing away leftovers, and collective actions, such as voting, participating in political events and in other ways expressing support for or resistance against climate-relevant policy. Does engaging in everyday climate-relevant activities have implications for support of climate policy, and vice versa, as suggested by research on pro-environmental behavioural spillover? A repeated survey was collected yearly between 2018 and 2022 from representative samples of Norwegians, most of whom participated in more than one survey. The surveys included self-reports about two everyday climate-relevant behaviours (eating red meat and discarding food waste) and the support for two types of policy to mitigate climate change (expansion of wind power and “carbon taxes” – the use of taxes or fees to regulate climate-relevant behaviour). Cross-lagged structural equation modelling of relationships between everyday climate-relevant behaviour and support for mitigation policy reveal that, as expected, all auto-regressive effects (of a latent variable on itself, measured one year apart) are highly significant. There are also significant, positive cross-lagged (i.e., spillover) effects, which are generally bigger between the two types of everyday behaviours and support for the two types of policies than between everyday behaviour and policy support. However, support for carbon taxes has a strong positive effect on reducing meat consumption. Hence, it appears that when it comes to climate actions, consumer and citizen roles are intertwined. Spillover effects are partly mediated through climate concern.

Underestimation of personal carbon footprint inequality in four diverse countries

Extensive research highlights global and within-country inequality in personal carbon footprints. However, the extent to which people are aware of these inequalities remains unclear. Here we use an online survey distributed across four diverse countries: Denmark, India, Nigeria and the USA, to show widespread underestimation of carbon footprint inequality, irrespective of participants’ country and income segment. Of the 4,003 participants, within each country, 50% of participants were sampled from the top 10% income group. Our results show links between carbon footprint inequality perceptions and climate policy support, but with significant variations observed across the four countries and with participants’ income segments. Furthermore, there are links to the perceived fairness of actual carbon footprint inequality, highlighting the need to raise awareness about carbon footprint inequality and further unpack its implications for climate justice and policy.

Political trust and public support for climate policy in Europe: the role of perceptions about politicians’ competence and integrity

While previous studies on the relationship between political trust and support for climate policy have focused on the evaluative component of trust, namely whether politicians and the political system can be trusted or not, less is known about the role of different dimensions of trustworthiness that underlie such evaluations. In this study, we examine how perceptions about politicians’ competence and integrity, two central dimensions of trustworthiness, are related to public support for climate policies. Using survey data from four European countries (Sweden, Germany, Spain, and Poland), we find that people who think that politicians are competent are generally more likely to support climate policy. In contrast, we do not find such a relationship between integrity perceptions (e.g., corruption) and policy attitudes. These findings are consistent across national contexts and hold even when alternating the measures capturing competence and integrity perceptions. To bolster public support for climate policies, climate communication should prioritize addressing public concerns regarding politicians’ competence in designing sound climate policies, rather than alleviating concerns about their integrity, such as fears of corruption.

Measuring climate change perception in China using mental images: A nationwide open-ended survey.

Current knowledge about public climate change perception mainly covers belief, concern, and attitudes. However, how this discourse is interpreted using individuals' own frame of reference remains largely unknown, particularly in many large emitters from non-Annex I countries such as China. This study, for the first time, performs a nationwide open-ended survey covering 4,037 respondents and collected 12,100 textual answers. Using a semiautomated coding method, we find seven mental images that exclusively represent the Chinese interpretation of the climate change issue, including global warming, distant icons, natural disasters, environmental degradation, cause, solution, and weather. Analysis of influencing factors shows that females, those with lower education levels, lower income, and older individuals tend to connect climate change with natural weather phenomena. Younger and well-educated residents in developed cities are more aware of various consequences and anthropogenic causes of climate change. People with stronger climate change beliefs, policy support, and personal experience of extreme weather are more likely to mention disastrous impacts, carbon emission as causes, and potential solutions. Employing the multilevel regression and post-stratification technique, we map the prevalence of mental images in China at the prefecture-city level. The results reveal significant geographical heterogeneity, with estimated national means ranging from a high of 55% (weather) to a low of 11% (solution). Our findings reveal diverse perspectives and a widespread misconception of climate change in China, suggesting the need for tailored clarification strategies to gain public consent.

The Role of Fear, Sadness, and Anger in Shaping Support for Climate Policies: Evidence from a UK Survey Experiment

The Role of Fear, Sadness, and Anger in Shaping Support for Climate Policies: Evidence from a UK Survey Experiment

Regional variation in social norm nudges

Public support is crucial for the effectiveness of ambitious climate policies, and social norm interventions have been proven effective in fostering support. An open question is which norms should be communicated if support and estimated support for climate policies differ substantially between regions. In two studies, we investigate whether individuals accurately assess the existing support and then explore the impact of national and regional norms on public support. Our results show that the norm on climate policy support is generally misperceived, i.e., the norm is higher than expected. This misperception increases with policy ambition and varies substantially between sub-national regions. Information about the national norm increases support, mainly in regions with below or above-average support. In contrast, interventions with regional norms are ineffective and even backfire in low-support regions. This demonstrates that norm nudges need to consider the regional aspects of the reference and target groups.

Green industrial policy can strengthen carbon pricing but not replace it

Carbon pricing has received prominent support as the key policy to reduce greenhouse gas emissions. Yet, in the context of heightened geopolitical tensions and risks of supply chain disruptions, policy makers are increasingly resorting to green industrial policies to support the deployment of clean energy technologies. This Perspective discusses whether this development represents a paradigm shift in the design of climate policies and assesses arguments for and against carbon pricing and green industrial policies. Our analysis addresses implications for economic efficiency, security of supply, distributional concerns and political economy issues. We find that green industrial policies can support carbon pricing by lowering market barriers for clean technology diffusion and strengthening political support for climate policy. Yet, we also emphasize that a carbon price should be an essential element in any effective climate mitigation policy mix and the key is to find the optimal policy mix for carbon pricing and green industrial policies for the unique context of each location. In the EU, green industrial policy should mainly be employed to complement carbon pricing and deal with additional market barriers. In the US, by contrast, green industrial policy could be used strategically to try to build political support for and reduce resistance to a carbon price.

Do “environmental losers” pay the price? The role of individual and country vulnerabilities in the relationship between environmental concern and willingness to pay to protect the environment

Previous research consistently finds a weak relationship between environmental concern and willingness to pay for the environment. Although individuals are concerned for the environment and believe climate change is a serious problem, a major part of concerned individuals fail to act pro-environmentally or to support climate policies. Existing research has not yet provided a complete understanding of the relationship between perception of environmental problem and pro-environmental behaviors. In this study, we add to previous research on the environmental attitude-behavior gap by focusing on economic and climate-related vulnerabilities that might act as barriers in the translation of environmental concern into willingness to pay. Using multilevel analysis on data from the International Social Survey Programme (ISSP), we find that economic constraints and the perception of having experienced an extreme weather event affect people’s willingness to pay to protect the environment. We also find that concerned people are more likely to engage in pro-environmental behaviors in countries where national wealth is higher, whereas living in climate-vulnerable countries mostly affects the willingness to pay of non-concerned individuals.

Warming climate apathy to mitigate the disparity in climate policy support across distinct income strata

Worldwide, nations strive to curtail carbon emissions, but income disparities create challenges in climate policy support. While the Chinese government has employed economic incentives to mitigate the financial burden of green energy transition, these measures may not fully address the underlying issue of climate apathy, wherein individuals prioritize immediate interests over long-term climate concerns. Using a three-year online tracking sample of Chinese adults (n = 4,699), this study investigates the enduring predictive role of income poverty on climate policy support (e.g., green energy transition), alongside the explanatory power of climate apathy and economic burden for this effect. The research reveals that income poverty results in lower climate policy support, with climate apathy explaining 38.29% of this effect, while economic burden accounts for only 8%. Moreover, compared to economic burden, climate apathy has a stronger impact on policy support in regions with different levels of economic development. These findings underscore the potential of addressing climate apathy as a non-economic approach to enhance support for climate policies among low-income groups, offering a cost-effective and stable strategy to bridge the policy support gap caused by income disparity and regional economic imbalances.

Misperceived Social Norms and Willingness to Act Against Climate Change

Abstract We document the individual willingness to act against climate change and study the role of social norms in a large sample of US adults. Individual beliefs about social norms positively predict pro-climate donations, comparable in strength to universal moral values and economic preferences. However, we document systematic misperceptions of social norms. Respondents vastly underestimate the prevalence of climate-friendly behaviors and norms. Correcting these misperceptions in an experiment causally raises individual willingness to act against climate change and individual support for climate policies. The effects are strongest for individuals who are skeptical about the existence and threat of global warming.

Relationship between human activities and environmental changes in the southern Tibetan Plateau since the Little Ice Age

The Tibetan Plateau (TP) is one of the most challenging areas for human long-term settlement due to its extreme living environment. Understanding the relationship between human activities and environmental changes in this extreme environment is important and can provide a historical reference for adapting to future climate change. In this study, we took the Angren Basin in the southern TP as a case study to elucidate the relationship since Little Ice Age (LIA). Using fecal stanol in feces, lake and river surface sediments, surface soils, and sediment core, we found that specific indices S1 and S2 from the composition of coprostanol, epicoprostanol, 5β-ethylcoprostanol and 5β-ethylepicoprostanol can reflect changes in human population and herbivores, respectively. Through the comparison between environmental changes determined by grain size, elements, sedimentation rate, and other climate records, the relationship between human activities and environmental changes was interpreted. Our results indicate that: (i) during 1480–1820 CE, the fecal stanols in lake sediments mainly originated from livestock, and the human population was low. In contrast, during 1820–2021 CE, the proportion and flux of S1 have been continuously increasing, indicating significant population growth. (ii) During the middle LIA, the cold-dry climate inhibited the development of agriculture and farming. However, the increased precipitation during the late LIA promoted that development, resulting in an increase in human population and livestock in a short term. (iii) Since 1951, people have reclaimed wasteland and developed husbandry, leading to increased soil erosion. (iv) Over the past 40 years, with a warm-humid climate and good policy support, human activities, such as agriculture and husbandry, have rapidly increased, but soil erosion has declined in the recent 20 years due to good soil-water conservation efforts. This study sheds light on the relationship between human activities and environmental changes and provides insights into future climate change responses.

Science-Consistent Climate Health Beliefs As Predictors of Climate Behaviors and Support for Inflation Reduction Act Provisions and a Carbon Emissions Tax

Understanding the factors associated with acceptance of climate action is central in designing effective climate change communication strategies. An exploratory factor analysis of 12 science-consistent beliefs about the existence, causes, and consequences of climate change reveals three underlying factors: climate change [a] is real and human caused, [b] has increased the frequency of extreme weather events, and [c] negatively affects public health. In the presence of demographic, ideological, and party controls, this health factor significantly predicts a 3–6 percentage point increase in respondents’ [a] willingness to advocate for climate change; [b] reported personal pro-climate behaviors; and [c] support for government policies addressing climate change. These results are robust when controlling for respondents’ underlying belief in the existence and causes of climate change, respondent worry, self-efficacy, and respondent belief that extreme weather events and heat waves are increasing. These findings suggest ways to bolster public support for climate policies that may otherwise be at risk.