Extreme weather exposure and public support for climate adaptation finance in vulnerable developing countries: Evidence from the European Union

Climate change impacts are intensifying worldwide, with the harshest consequences borne by vulnerable developing countries that face high exposure and limited capacity to adapt. Although international agreements commit wealthy donor countries to provide adaptation finance, actual transfers remain far below estimated needs. Expanding such support ultimately depends on domestic political feasibility, including the preferences of donor-country publics. This paper investigates whether personal exposure to extreme weather fosters solidarity with vulnerable developing countries. I link objective indicators of heatwaves, heavy rainfall, and drought to more than 23,000 responses from the 2024 European Investment Bank Climate Survey across the EU-27. Ordered logistic regressions reveal that exposure to all three weather types is positively associated with support for financing adaptation abroad. The findings suggest that, at current exposure levels, proximate climate damages activate an empathy pathway that strengthens outward-looking solidarity, rather than a crowding-out mechanism that would shift priorities toward domestic adaptation.