Public Acceptability of Climate Change Mitigation Policies: A Discrete Choice Experiment

Our study examines public acceptability of the EU’s future mitigation targets. Using the discrete choice experiment, we elicit the preferences of about 4,098 respondents from the Czech Republic, Poland, and the United Kingdom for the GHG emission reduction policies that differ in four attributes: emission reduction target, burden sharing across the EU Member States, the distribution of costs within each country, and cost. The three specific reduction targets we analysed correspond to the EU 2050 Roadmap and deep decarbonisation policy (80% target), the climate-energy 2014 targets (40% target), and the status quo policy (20% target); each will result in a specific emission trajectory by 2050. Our results reveal stark differences between the three countries. Czechs would be on average willing to pay around EUR 13 per household and year for the 40% GHG emission reductions by 2030 or EUR 17 for 80% reduction target by 2050, and the citizens of the UK are willing to pay about EUR 40. Conversely, the mean willingness to pay of the Polish household for adopting more stringent targets is not statistically different from zero. The willingness to pay for adopting 40% and 80% targets are not statistically different in any of the examined countries. However, we found that the preferences in all three countries are highly heterogeneous. In addition, we provide an insight into the preferred characteristics of the future GHG emission reduction policies.