Public perceptions of climate policy fairness and effectiveness across climate policy types and domains in 15 countries

Individuals are more supportive of climate policies when they think the measures are fair and effective. This evidence, however, is primarily based on data from Western samples, leaving it open how public effectiveness and fairness perceptions vary across geographical contexts and how they are shaped by regional indicators. Here, we aim to address these questions, investigating climate policy effectiveness and fairness perceptions across four policy types and two policy domains in 15 countries, covering all continents (N=6’052). Effectiveness and fairness ratings varied between policy types and domains, and this pattern was relatively stable across nations. However, individuals in the Global South were overall more optimistic about the effectiveness of climate policies and evaluated them as generally fairer compared to the Global North. Linking psychological and contextual data further shows that effectiveness and fairness perceptions were higher in countries that are more vulnerable to climate change impacts and lower in countries with higher per capita emissions. Moreover, the impact of psychological variables such as climate change concern and political orientation on both outcomes varied as a function of national context. Taken together, our findings point to important geographical asymmetries in the extent to which the public perceives climate mitigation policies as effective and fair, shaped by how much countries contribute to and are affected by climate change.