A global view of eco-social policy support: insights from six high-emission countries
Schulz, Felix LU
; Bretter, Christian
; Buchs, Milena
and Trappmann, Vera
(2026)
In Global Sustainability
9.
- Abstract
- Eco-social policies aim to establish a social floor while respecting planetary boundaries and to improve the social outcomes of ecological policies. Research on public attitudes towards eco-social policies remains limited, focusing exclusively on people in high-income countries in Europe. Using representative samples in three diverse middle-income countries (Brazil, South Africa, China) and three diverse high-income countries (US, UK, Germany) – which, together, are responsible for 49% of total global CO2 emissions – we examine differences in public support for three eco-social policies: universal basic services, a cap on income and wealth, and a redistributive carbon tax (N = 11,964). Utilizing ordinal logistic regression models, we find... (More)
- Eco-social policies aim to establish a social floor while respecting planetary boundaries and to improve the social outcomes of ecological policies. Research on public attitudes towards eco-social policies remains limited, focusing exclusively on people in high-income countries in Europe. Using representative samples in three diverse middle-income countries (Brazil, South Africa, China) and three diverse high-income countries (US, UK, Germany) – which, together, are responsible for 49% of total global CO2 emissions – we examine differences in public support for three eco-social policies: universal basic services, a cap on income and wealth, and a redistributive carbon tax (N = 11,964). Utilizing ordinal logistic regression models, we find that participants in poorer countries with more social shortfalls show stronger support for policies that are focused on strengthening basic human needs compared to participants from high-income countries. However, within countries, values related to nature and beliefs in the ‘free market’ are considerably more important in explaining support than socio-demographic characteristics such as income or education, whose association with eco-social policy support is inconsistent. Moreover, the strength of the relationship between policy support and these explanatory variables varies considerably across countries, underlining the importance of context specific explanations for eco-social policy support. (Less)
Please use this url to cite or link to this publication:
https://lup.lub.lu.se/record/5b2f623f-fe5e-4f22-9342-234072b51c22
- author
- Schulz, Felix
LU
; Bretter, Christian
; Buchs, Milena
and Trappmann, Vera
- organization
- publishing date
- 2026-02-04
- type
- Contribution to journal
- publication status
- published
- subject
- keywords
- Eco-social policies, just transition, Public support, Public attitudes, UBS, income and wealth
- in
- Global Sustainability
- volume
- 9
- article number
- e9
- publisher
- Cambridge University Press
- external identifiers
-
- scopus:105029673752
- ISSN
- 2059-4798
- DOI
- 10.1017/sus.2026.10048
- language
- English
- LU publication?
- yes
- id
- 5b2f623f-fe5e-4f22-9342-234072b51c22
- date added to LUP
- 2026-02-19 10:00:15
- date last changed
- 2026-03-02 09:47:49
@article{5b2f623f-fe5e-4f22-9342-234072b51c22,
abstract = {{Eco-social policies aim to establish a social floor while respecting planetary boundaries and to improve the social outcomes of ecological policies. Research on public attitudes towards eco-social policies remains limited, focusing exclusively on people in high-income countries in Europe. Using representative samples in three diverse middle-income countries (Brazil, South Africa, China) and three diverse high-income countries (US, UK, Germany) – which, together, are responsible for 49% of total global CO2 emissions – we examine differences in public support for three eco-social policies: universal basic services, a cap on income and wealth, and a redistributive carbon tax (N = 11,964). Utilizing ordinal logistic regression models, we find that participants in poorer countries with more social shortfalls show stronger support for policies that are focused on strengthening basic human needs compared to participants from high-income countries. However, within countries, values related to nature and beliefs in the ‘free market’ are considerably more important in explaining support than socio-demographic characteristics such as income or education, whose association with eco-social policy support is inconsistent. Moreover, the strength of the relationship between policy support and these explanatory variables varies considerably across countries, underlining the importance of context specific explanations for eco-social policy support.}},
author = {{Schulz, Felix and Bretter, Christian and Buchs, Milena and Trappmann, Vera}},
issn = {{2059-4798}},
keywords = {{Eco-social policies; just transition; Public support; Public attitudes; UBS; income and wealth}},
language = {{eng}},
month = {{02}},
publisher = {{Cambridge University Press}},
series = {{Global Sustainability}},
title = {{A global view of eco-social policy support: insights from six high-emission countries}},
url = {{http://dx.doi.org/10.1017/sus.2026.10048}},
doi = {{10.1017/sus.2026.10048}},
volume = {{9}},
year = {{2026}},
}