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Public support for climate policies and its ideological predictors across countries of the Global North and Global South

Bretter, Christian and Schulz, Felix LU orcid (2025) In Ecological Economics 233.
Abstract
Our understanding of public support for climate policies predominantly stems from studies in the Global North and a focus on isolated policy types. Here, we examine how public support for four different climate policy types and the effect of ideological explanatory variables on such support vary among countries of the Global North and Global South. We surveyed representative samples of each three Global Northern countries (Germany, UK, USA) and Global Southern countries (Brazil, China and South Africa) – among those the highest emitters on their respective continents, contributing to 49.3 % of global carbon emissions – resulting in a total sample of N = 11,964 individuals. While we found significant variations among countries, our results... (More)
Our understanding of public support for climate policies predominantly stems from studies in the Global North and a focus on isolated policy types. Here, we examine how public support for four different climate policy types and the effect of ideological explanatory variables on such support vary among countries of the Global North and Global South. We surveyed representative samples of each three Global Northern countries (Germany, UK, USA) and Global Southern countries (Brazil, China and South Africa) – among those the highest emitters on their respective continents, contributing to 49.3 % of global carbon emissions – resulting in a total sample of N = 11,964 individuals. While we found significant variations among countries, our results showed that public support across all policy types was stronger in the three Global Southern countries, compared to that of the three Global Northern countries. We also found that a positive association of trust in public institutions and a negative association of individualistic worldviews with policy support were stronger in Global Northern countries, compared to Global Southern countries, regardless of policy type. These findings suggest that ideologies play a more important role for policy support in the Global Northern countries, compared to the Global Southern countries. (Less)
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author
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organization
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type
Contribution to journal
publication status
published
subject
in
Ecological Economics
volume
233
article number
108603
publisher
Elsevier
external identifiers
  • scopus:86000728068
ISSN
0921-8009
DOI
10.1016/j.ecolecon.2025.108603
language
English
LU publication?
yes
id
300ba633-1a1f-4b4f-9888-a2f2058b2347
date added to LUP
2025-03-19 12:04:43
date last changed
2025-06-09 09:49:01
@article{300ba633-1a1f-4b4f-9888-a2f2058b2347,
  abstract     = {{Our understanding of public support for climate policies predominantly stems from studies in the Global North and a focus on isolated policy types. Here, we examine how public support for four different climate policy types and the effect of ideological explanatory variables on such support vary among countries of the Global North and Global South. We surveyed representative samples of each three Global Northern countries (Germany, UK, USA) and Global Southern countries (Brazil, China and South Africa) – among those the highest emitters on their respective continents, contributing to 49.3 % of global carbon emissions – resulting in a total sample of N = 11,964 individuals. While we found significant variations among countries, our results showed that public support across all policy types was stronger in the three Global Southern countries, compared to that of the three Global Northern countries. We also found that a positive association of trust in public institutions and a negative association of individualistic worldviews with policy support were stronger in Global Northern countries, compared to Global Southern countries, regardless of policy type. These findings suggest that ideologies play a more important role for policy support in the Global Northern countries, compared to the Global Southern countries.}},
  author       = {{Bretter, Christian and Schulz, Felix}},
  issn         = {{0921-8009}},
  language     = {{eng}},
  month        = {{03}},
  publisher    = {{Elsevier}},
  series       = {{Ecological Economics}},
  title        = {{Public support for climate policies and its ideological predictors across countries of the Global North and Global South}},
  url          = {{http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.ecolecon.2025.108603}},
  doi          = {{10.1016/j.ecolecon.2025.108603}},
  volume       = {{233}},
  year         = {{2025}},
}