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Fighting climate change: international attitudes towards climate policies

Author

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  • Dechezlepretre, Antoine
  • Fabre, Adrien
  • Kruse, Tobias
  • Planterose, Bluebery
  • Sanchez Chico, Ana
  • Stantcheva, Stefanie

Abstract

Using new surveys on more than 40,000 respondents in twenty countries that account for 72% of global CO2 emissions, we study the understanding of and attitudes toward climate change and climate policies. We show that, across countries, support for climate policies hinges on three key perceptions centered around the effectiveness o f the policies in reducing emissions (effectiveness c concerns), t heir distributional impacts on lower-income households (inequality concerns), and their impact on the respondents’ household (self-interest). We show experimentally that information specifically addressing these key concerns can substantially increase the support for climate policies in many countries. Explaining how policies work and who can benefit f rom t hem is critical to foster policy support, whereas simply informing people about the impacts of climate change is not effective. Furthermore, we identify several socioeconomic and lifestyle factors – most notably education, political leanings, and availability of public transportation – that are significantly correlated with both policy views and overall reasoning and beliefs about climate policies. However, it is difficult to predict beliefs or policy views based on these characteristics only.

Suggested Citation

  • Dechezlepretre, Antoine & Fabre, Adrien & Kruse, Tobias & Planterose, Bluebery & Sanchez Chico, Ana & Stantcheva, Stefanie, 2022. "Fighting climate change: international attitudes towards climate policies," LSE Research Online Documents on Economics 117562, London School of Economics and Political Science, LSE Library.
  • Handle: RePEc:ehl:lserod:117562
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    File URL: http://eprints.lse.ac.uk/117562/
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    References listed on IDEAS

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    More about this item

    Keywords

    climate change; climate policies; carbon tax; perceptions; survey; experiment; French Ministry of Foreign Affairs; French Conseil d’Analyse Economique; Spanish Ministry for the Ecological Transition and Demographic Challenge;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • Q54 - Agricultural and Natural Resource Economics; Environmental and Ecological Economics - - Environmental Economics - - - Climate; Natural Disasters and their Management; Global Warming
    • Q58 - Agricultural and Natural Resource Economics; Environmental and Ecological Economics - - Environmental Economics - - - Environmental Economics: Government Policy
    • D78 - Microeconomics - - Analysis of Collective Decision-Making - - - Positive Analysis of Policy Formulation and Implementation
    • H23 - Public Economics - - Taxation, Subsidies, and Revenue - - - Externalities; Redistributive Effects; Environmental Taxes and Subsidies
    • P48 - Political Economy and Comparative Economic Systems - - Other Economic Systems - - - Legal Institutions; Property Rights; Natural Resources; Energy; Environment; Regional Studies

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