From Consumers to Voters: Information Targeting in Climate Policy

Information about climate change is a commonly used tool to help consumers and voters make decisions that better align with their climate concerns. Most research efforts have focused on consumers, often in the form of carbon labelling. We review recent evidence from large-sample field experiments on the impact of carbon labels on real-life consumption, and find that most effects are null or small. Moreover, carbon labels mostly work by making climate change salient, so effects are often transient. Instead, a younger literature strives to help voters understand systemic policies, building on the finding that voters often misperceive their impact and distributional effects. We review this growing literature, and we discuss the risk that information targeting consumers crowds out support for systemic policies. In light of the promising early findings, we propose that research on information-based strategies shift emphasis from consumers to voters, and focus on giving the latter a better understanding of the available options.