IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/gam/jsusta/v16y2024i4p1531-d1337360.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Investigating Public Support for the Carbon Generalized System of Preference through the Lens of Protection Motivation Theory and Information Deficit Model

Author

Listed:
  • Wanyan Li

    (Gansu Key Laboratory for Environmental Pollution Prediction and Control, College of Earth and Environmental Sciences, Lanzhou University, Lanzhou 730030, China)

  • Jincan Liu

    (School of Civil Engineering and Technology, Hainan University, Haikou 570228, China)

Abstract

The pressing challenges of climate change require government policy interventions. The carbon generalized system of preference (CGSP) is a novel incentive policy that has tremendous potential to reduce carbon emissions in response to climate change. However, there have been few studies focusing on public support for the CGSP, which is the precondition for its seamless implementation. Drawing on the protection motivation theory and information deficit model, this study presents and empirically validates a holistic theoretical framework in which information (information about climate change and information about the CGSP), threat appraisal (threat vulnerability and threat severity), and coping appraisal (response efficacy, self-efficacy, and response cost) are the factors influencing public support for the CGSP. Survey data of 372 respondents were empirically analyzed using the PLS-SEM method. The results show that threat vulnerability, threat severity, response efficacy, and self-efficacy positively affect public support for the CGSP, while response cost does not influence public support for the CGSP. Information about climate change indirectly influences public support for the CGSP through threat vulnerability and threat severity. Information about the CGSP not only directly affects public support for the CGSP but also indirectly affects public support for the CGSP through response efficacy and self-efficacy. The theoretical framework of this study can serve as a reference for future research on public support for environmental policies. The findings of this study also furnish insights for policymakers to develop feasible strategies for the seamless implementation of the CGSP.

Suggested Citation

  • Wanyan Li & Jincan Liu, 2024. "Investigating Public Support for the Carbon Generalized System of Preference through the Lens of Protection Motivation Theory and Information Deficit Model," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 16(4), pages 1-20, February.
  • Handle: RePEc:gam:jsusta:v:16:y:2024:i:4:p:1531-:d:1337360
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://www.mdpi.com/2071-1050/16/4/1531/pdf
    Download Restriction: no

    File URL: https://www.mdpi.com/2071-1050/16/4/1531/
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Grace B. Villamor & Steve J. Wakelin & Andrew Dunningham & Peter W. Clinton, 2023. "Climate change adaptation behaviour of forest growers in New Zealand: an application of protection motivation theory," Climatic Change, Springer, vol. 176(2), pages 1-25, February.
    2. Moon, Won-Ki & Kahlor, Lee Ann & Olson, Hilary Clement, 2020. "Understanding public support for carbon capture and storage policy: The roles of social capital, stakeholder perceptions, and perceived risk/benefit of technology," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 139(C).
    3. Nilsson, Andreas & Hansla, André & Heiling, Joakim Malmborg & Bergstad, Cecilia Jakobsson & Martinsson, Johan, 2016. "Public acceptability towards environmental policy measures: Value-matching appeals," Environmental Science & Policy, Elsevier, vol. 61(C), pages 176-184.
    4. San-Pui Lam, 2015. "Predicting support of climate policies by using a protection motivation model," Climate Policy, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 15(3), pages 321-338, May.
    5. Maria Rubio Juan & Melanie Revilla, 2021. "Support for mitigation and adaptation climate change policies: effects of five attitudinal factors," Mitigation and Adaptation Strategies for Global Change, Springer, vol. 26(6), pages 1-22, August.
    6. Samane Ghazali & Hossein Azadi & Alishir Kurban & Nicolae Ajtai & Marcin Pietrzykowski & Frank Witlox, 2021. "Determinants of farmers’ adaptation decisions under changing climate: the case of Fars province in Iran," Climatic Change, Springer, vol. 166(1), pages 1-24, May.
    7. Odland, Severin & Rhodes, Ekaterina & Corbett, Meghan & Pardy, Aaron, 2023. "What policies do homeowners prefer for building decarbonization and why? An exploration of climate policy support in Canada," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 173(C).
    8. Jing Shi & Vivianne H. M. Visschers & Michael Siegrist, 2015. "Public Perception of Climate Change: The Importance of Knowledge and Cultural Worldviews," Risk Analysis, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 35(12), pages 2183-2201, December.
    9. Stefan Drews & Jeroen C.J.M. van den Bergh, 2016. "What explains public support for climate policies? A review of empirical and experimental studies," Climate Policy, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 16(7), pages 855-876, October.
    10. Pakmehr, Sedighe & Yazdanpanah, Masoud & Baradaran, Masoud, 2020. "How collective efficacy makes a difference in responses to water shortage due to climate change in southwest Iran," Land Use Policy, Elsevier, vol. 99(C).
    11. Paul M. Kellstedt & Sammy Zahran & Arnold Vedlitz, 2008. "Personal Efficacy, the Information Environment, and Attitudes Toward Global Warming and Climate Change in the United States," Risk Analysis, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 28(1), pages 113-126, February.
    12. Tan, Xueping & Wang, Xinyu & Zaidi, Syed Haider Ali, 2019. "What drives public willingness to participate in the voluntary personal carbon-trading scheme? A case study of Guangzhou Pilot, China," Ecological Economics, Elsevier, vol. 165(C), pages 1-1.
    13. Zobeidi, Tahereh & Yaghoubi, Jafar & Yazdanpanah, Masoud, 2022. "Farmers’ incremental adaptation to water scarcity: An application of the model of private proactive adaptation to climate change (MPPACC)," Agricultural Water Management, Elsevier, vol. 264(C).
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Emma Ejelöv & Andreas Nilsson, 2020. "Individual Factors Influencing Acceptability for Environmental Policies: A Review and Research Agenda," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 12(6), pages 1-14, March.
    2. Odland, Severin & Rhodes, Ekaterina & Corbett, Meghan & Pardy, Aaron, 2023. "What policies do homeowners prefer for building decarbonization and why? An exploration of climate policy support in Canada," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 173(C).
    3. Kumar Bahadur Darjee & Prem Raj Neupane & Michael Köhl, 2023. "Proactive Adaptation Responses by Vulnerable Communities to Climate Change Impacts," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 15(14), pages 1-30, July.
    4. Mortoja, Md. Golam & Yigitcanlar, Tan, 2022. "Understanding political bias in climate change belief: A public perception study from South East Queensland," Land Use Policy, Elsevier, vol. 122(C).
    5. Peyman Arjomandi A. & Masoud Yazdanpanah & Akbar Shirzad & Nadejda Komendantova & Erfan Kameli & Mahdi Hosseinzadeh & Erfan Razavi, 2023. "Institutional Trust and Cognitive Motivation toward Water Conservation in the Face of an Environmental Disaster," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 15(2), pages 1-21, January.
    6. Zhongwei Zhu & Tingyu Qian & Lei Liu, 2023. "Evolutionary Simulation of Carbon-Neutral Behavior of Urban Citizens in a “Follow–Drive” Perspective," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 15(13), pages 1-28, July.
    7. Hössinger, Reinhard & Peer, Stefanie & Juschten, Maria, 2023. "Give citizens a task: An innovative tool to compose policy bundles that reach the climate goal," Transportation Research Part A: Policy and Practice, Elsevier, vol. 173(C).
    8. Sedighe Pakmehr & Masoud Yazdanpanah & Masoud Baradaran, 2021. "Explaining farmers’ response to climate change-induced water stress through cognitive theory of stress: an Iranian perspective," Environment, Development and Sustainability: A Multidisciplinary Approach to the Theory and Practice of Sustainable Development, Springer, vol. 23(4), pages 5776-5793, April.
    9. Peter Dirksmeier & Leonie Tuitjer, 2023. "Do trust and renewable energy use enhance perceived climate change efficacy in Europe?," Environment, Development and Sustainability: A Multidisciplinary Approach to the Theory and Practice of Sustainable Development, Springer, vol. 25(8), pages 8753-8776, August.
    10. Kitt, Shelby & Axsen, Jonn & Long, Zoe & Rhodes, Ekaterina, 2021. "The role of trust in citizen acceptance of climate policy: Comparing perceptions of government competence, integrity and value similarity," Ecological Economics, Elsevier, vol. 183(C).
    11. Sara Eldeeb & Maria do Rosario Correia & Christian Richter, 2019. "A Fuzzy Set Analysis of the Determinants of Intention to Adapt and Pro-environmental Behaviour: The case of Egypt," Working Papers 53, The German University in Cairo, Faculty of Management Technology.
    12. Adrian Brügger & Robert Tobias & Fredy S. Monge-Rodríguez, 2021. "Public Perceptions of Climate Change in the Peruvian Andes," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 13(5), pages 1-27, March.
    13. Chen, Feiyu & Chen, Qirui & Hou, Jing & Li, Shanshan, 2023. "Effects of China's carbon generalized system of preferences on low-carbon action: A synthetic control analysis based on text mining," Energy Economics, Elsevier, vol. 124(C).
    14. Kruse, Tobias & Atkinson, Giles, 2022. "Understanding public support for international climate adaptation payments: Evidence from a choice experiment," Ecological Economics, Elsevier, vol. 194(C).
    15. Zhihui Wang & Liangzhen Nie & Eila Jeronen & Lihua Xu & Meiai Chen, 2023. "Understanding the Environmentally Sustainable Behavior of Chinese University Students as Tourists: An Integrative Framework," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 20(4), pages 1-17, February.
    16. Violeta Mihaela Dincă & Mihail Busu & Zoltan Nagy-Bege, 2022. "Determinants with Impact on Romanian Consumers’ Energy-Saving Habits," Energies, MDPI, vol. 15(11), pages 1-18, June.
    17. Baccar, Mariem & Raynal, Hélène & Sekhar, Muddu & Bergez, Jacques-Eric & Willaume, Magali & Casel, Pierre & Giriraj, P. & Murthy, Sanjeeva & Ruiz, Laurent, 2023. "Dynamics of crop category choices reveal strategies and tactics used by smallholder farmers in India to cope with unreliable water availability," Agricultural Systems, Elsevier, vol. 211(C).
    18. Walter Leal Filho & Mark Mifsud & Petra Molthan-Hill & Gustavo J. Nagy & Lucas Veiga Ávila & Amanda Lange Salvia, 2019. "Climate Change Scepticism at Universities: A Global Study," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 11(10), pages 1-13, May.
    19. Stefano Carattini & Andrea Baranzini & Philippe Thalmann & Frédéric Varone & Frank Vöhringer, 2017. "Green Taxes in a Post-Paris World: Are Millions of Nays Inevitable?," Environmental & Resource Economics, Springer;European Association of Environmental and Resource Economists, vol. 68(1), pages 97-128, September.
    20. Sebastian Levi & Christian Flachsland & Michael Jakob, 2020. "Political Economy Determinants of Carbon Pricing," Global Environmental Politics, MIT Press, vol. 20(2), pages 128-156, May.

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:gam:jsusta:v:16:y:2024:i:4:p:1531-:d:1337360. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: MDPI Indexing Manager (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://www.mdpi.com .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.