Combining climate, economic, and social policy builds public support for climate action in the US

Abstract

Despite the gravity of the climate threat, governments around the world have struggled to pass and implement climate policies. Today, politicians and advocates are championing a new idea: linking climate policy to other economic and social reforms. Will this approach generate greater public support for climate action? Here, we test this coalition-building strategy. Using two conjoint experiments on a representative sample of 2,476 Americans, we evaluate the marginal impact of 40 different climate, social, and economic policies on support for climate reforms. Overall, we find climate policy bundles that include social and economic reforms such as affordable housing, a $15 minimum wage, or a job guarantee increase US public support for climate mitigation. Clean energy standards, regardless of which technologies are included, also make climate policy more popular. Linking climate policy to economic and social issues is particularly effective at expanding climate policy support among people of color.

Ensuring a Post-COVID Economic Agenda Tackles Global Biodiversity Loss

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Individual-Level Determinants of the Public Acceptance of Policy Measures to Improve Urban Air Quality: The Case of the Barcelona Low Emission Zone

“…The policy instrument's characteristics and the individual-level factors proposed in the model may combine to influence reactions to and acceptance of the policy instrument. Other contextual factors affecting both the level of acceptance per se and the factors and mechanisms determining acceptance, such as personal experience (see status quo bias in [24,34,35]) or the framing and packaging of the policy instrument [21,24,36], are not considered here.…”

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“…(2) Water is essential for all life to exist; (3) Water connects all earth systems; (4) Water is a natural resource; (5) Water resources are managed; (6) Water resources exist within social constructs; (7) Water resources exist within cultural constructs. "…”

“…Moreover, the need for such knowledge is not confined to water managers, researchers, and decision makers, but also includes every citizen and user of water. Scholars have advocated for environmental efforts that mobilize widespread public support and action, even from those who "may not consider themselves 'environmentalists'" [5] (p. 2). Sustainable water management is no exception to this idea and thus requires broad understanding and engagement across the masses.…”