Research shows: a majority wants to pay for climate protection

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A team led by Armin Falk from the University of Bonn evaluated responses from nearly 130,000 people aged 15 and over from 125 countries. According to the survey, 86 percent of respondents said people in their country should do something about global warming. In 119 of the 125 countries, more than two-thirds of respondents support this. 89 percent want their government to take stronger action on climate change.

“Our results show broad support for climate protection measures,” the group writes in the journal “Nature Climate Change.” People in countries at particular risk of climate change showed a particularly strong willingness to contribute to climate protection themselves.

Pessimistic view of other people

“Despite these encouraging numbers, we document that the world is in a state of pluralistic ignorance in which people worldwide systematically underestimate the willingness of their fellow citizens to take action,” the researchers write.

Although 69 percent said they would be willing to donate one percent to climate protection, all respondents on average believed that only 43 percent of their peers would do so. This pessimism about others’ support for climate action may discourage people from participating in climate action and thus confirm others’ negative beliefs, the researchers write.

The survey was conducted as part of the Gallup World Poll 2021 and 2022. The countries included are responsible for 96 percent of global greenhouse gas emissions and represent 92 percent of the world’s population.

Low willingness in Russia

There were large differences between countries in the willingness to spend one percent of family income on climate protection: for example, at 40 to 49 percent of the population, willingness was relatively low in the US, Canada and Russia. With 60 to 69 percent, Germany, Poland, Brazil and India were in the middle bracket. The willingness to give one percent was relatively high in China.

“In principle, the methodological implementation is very clean and good,” said Christine Merk of the Institute for the World Economy (IfW) in Kiel about the research. The high approval ratings in Asian countries may be due to actual cultural differences in attitudes. However, they may also result from a greater tendency to answer affirmatively in surveys.

The question of willingness to donate is also highly hypothetical, Merk said. “And there is no reference to the amount respondents would have to pay monthly, and especially with such simple questions you have to assume that the willingness to contribute and the amount are overestimated.”

Food for thought for decision makers

Julian Sagebiel of the German Center for Integrative Biodiversity Research (iDiv) in Leipzig sees things the same way: “On the one hand, respondents have no incentive to answer truthfully.” On the other hand, what combating global warming means has not been defined. “Nevertheless, the research is very valuable, methodologically clean and statistically correctly evaluated.”

The results should give decision makers food for thought. “However, under no circumstances should they be used to set budgets for climate protection,” Sagebiel stressed. “Yes, people want to do something about climate change, but even after this research we still don’t know how much of their income they are actually willing to give up.”

“Overall, the survey results give reason to hope that world leaders and decision makers could listen to the majority of the population and have more courage to implement strict policies and regulations to phase out fossil fuels and promote renewable energy ”, concluded Ilona Otto from the University of Graz. “The willingness to contribute part of our income to the fight against climate change is of course a good signal, but in reality we must be ready for profound social changes in our routines, our behavior, our social norms, but also in politics and infrastructure.”

(SDA)

Source: Blick