What are the Determinants of Public Support for Climate Policies? A Review of the Empirical Literature

Abstract

Climate change is one of the most challenging problems of our times. To be effective, climate policies need to receive citizens’ approval. The objective of this article is to examine both the extent of individuals’ support for different climate policies and key determinants of policy support. To this end, an overview of the related empirical literature is provided. The article shows that the empirical literature on public climate policy support is very diverse in terms of concepts, measures of policy support and empirical approaches. Moreover, the bulk of the existing empirical literature has a strong U.S. focus. The article concludes that public support for climate policies is rather a matter of climate change beliefs and party identification, and not primarily a question of socio-demographic background. The article also offers suggestions for future research as well as policy recommendations.

Predictors of U.S. public support for climate aid to developing countries

“…As hypothesized, we found that global warming belief certainty is related to support for climate aid to developing countries. Past research has identified belief certainty as a predictor of climate policy support generally (Bromley-Trujillo and Poe 2020, Goldberg et al 2020, Bumann 2021. This indicates that people who believe global warming is happening are more likely to support certain kinds of climate policies (Ding et al 2011, Hall et al 2018.…”

“…Belief certainty refers to people's certainty that global warming is, or is not, happening (Roser-Renouf et al 2014, van der Linden et al 2015. Previous studies found that the more certain people are that global warming is happening, the more likely they are to support climate policies or engage in climate action (Ding et al 2011, Roser-Renouf et al 2014, Hall et al 2018, van der Linden et al 2015, 2019, Bromley-Trujillo and Poe 2020, Goldberg et al 2020, Bumann 2021, Campbell et al 2021. Hence, we hypothesize: H1: Belief certainty that global warming is happening will be positively associated with support for climate aid to developing countries.…”

Is the problem or the solution riskier? Predictors of carbon tax policy support

“…Bold government actions -for example, climate policies− are required to achieve a large-scale impact on emissions reduction. Climate policy formulation and design process might be smooth, but the policy adaptation most of the time requires citizens' approval (Bumann 2021). According to the existing literature, public opinion plays a crucial role in shaping support for public policy, particularly climate policy (Agnone 2007, McCright et al 2013, Goldberg et al 2020, Stadelmann-Steffen and Eder 2020.…”

“…In this vein, a series of individuallevel factors that directly or indirectly influence climate policy support are identified. Among the most notable ones are climate change beliefs, risk perceptions, socio-demographics, socio-psychological, and party identification (O'connor et al 1999, Smith and Leiserowitz 2014, Elgin 2014, Lee et al 2015, Drews and Van den Bergh 2016, Knight 2016, Crawley et al 2020, Bumann 2021). Studies such as Drews and Van den Bergh (2016) propose a more structured categorization of the factors that influence climate policy support: (1) 'socialpsychological factors and climate change perception; (2) the perception of climate policy and its design; and (3) contextual factors' 2 (p.855).…”

“…In 2015, at the Paris Climate Meeting, government representatives of 196 parties pledged to keep global warming below 2 °C, 'preferably to 1.5 °C' above pre-industrial levels (UNFCCC 2015). Though, considering the existing mitigation measures of most countries, it is highly likely that global warming will exceed 1.5 °C (Roelfsema et al 2020, Bumann 2021. We now observe an urgency for government action as the delays in dealing with this serious issue entail significant future consequences.…”