Residents’ Willingness and Influencing Factors on Action Personal Carbon Trading: A Case Study of Metropolitan Areas in Tianjin, China

Abstract

Personal carbon trading offers a powerful and innovative instrument with which to achieve reductions in carbon emissions. Meanwhile, residents’ personal carbon trading willingness and the factors influencing such willingness have critical effects on the acceptance of personal carbon trading. Therefore, the present research uses a questionnaire survey in metropolitan areas of Tianjin China and the results indicated that most of the interviewees (74.92%) agreed or strongly agreed that they would participant in personal carbon trading. Moreover, according to the results of multiple regression models, governmental policies and residents’ environmental awareness and motivations were positively related to their personal carbon trading willingness. However, personal barriers to personal carbon trading were negatively related to personal carbon trading willingness. Control variables, such as gender and incomes, were not significantly related to personal carbon trading willingness. Thus, monitoring residents’ emission and trading patterns, emphasizing effective, transparent, and fair policies, as well as mitigating uncertainty could all be effective ways to increase the acceptance of personal carbon trading.

Determinants of Residents’ Approach–Avoidance Responses to the Personal Carbon Trading Scheme: An Empirical Analysis of Urban Residents in Eastern China

“…For example, 13% of the college students and residents in Cambridge, United Kingdom expressed support for a PCT scheme [ 12 ]. In Tianjin, China, 74.92% of the residents agreed to participate in the PCT [ 14 ]. Tianjin is located in the eastern part of China.…”

“…Despite the various advantages of the PCT scheme, the feasibility of its implementation largely depends on the behavioral willingness of its participants; that is, residents [ 11 ]. The evidence shows that residents’ behavioral willingness to accept and participate in the scheme could be influenced by individual factors; these include the cognition of climate change [ 12 ], perception of environmental threat [ 13 ], expected behaviors for energy conservation and emissions reduction [ 13 ], and environmental awareness [ 14 ]. The scheme itself also affects residents’ attitudes, such as the pattern for implementing the scheme [ 5 ], the method for allocating the initial carbon allowance [ 15 ], and the household activities included in the measurement of the carbon emissions [ 16 ].…”

Personal Carbon Trading—Lost in the Policy Primeval Soup?

“…Country-specific characteristics could make PCTS more or less feasible [60]. These could be technical limitations, which can be an issue for the least developed and developing countries, but also cultural aspects of the general opinion on climate change [61]. In addition, the type of regime (democracy or autocracy) can have an impact on a country's ability to take climate mitigation action [62].…”

Public willingness to pay for personal carbon trading of green travel: based on survey data from five capital cities in eastern China

“…Influences of carbon trading on personal behavior were analyzed in a number of studies, for example, Kuokkanen et al (2020) found that carbon neutrality knowledge and income have a positive impact on personal carbon trading. Liu (2019) indicated that government policies, residents' environmental awareness and motivation are positively correlated with their willingness to personal carbon trading. Zhang and Feng (2022) uses logit modeling to analyze the effect of attributes on individuals' willingness to participate in personal carbon trading in the context of carbon-neutral policies as well as the effect of public heterogeneity on personal carbon trading.…”

“…Zhang and Feng (2022) uses logit modeling to analyze the effect of attributes on individuals' willingness to participate in personal carbon trading in the context of carbon-neutral policies as well as the effect of public heterogeneity on personal carbon trading. Evidence suggests that residents' behavioral willingness to accept and participate in the program may be influenced by personal factors, such as perceptions of climate change, perceived environmental threats, and environmental awareness (Xie et al, 2014;Liu, 2019). Tan et al (2019) investigated the driving factors of the public's willingness to participate in individual carbon trading in Guangdong pilot project, and the results showed that the institutional and technical environment, social reference norms, low-carbon cognition, participation feedback and participation risk were the influencing factors of public support for individual carbon trading.…”