Climate Crisis: How Urgency Shapes Policy Support

 

The urgency of the climate crisis increases support for measures like fossil fuel taxation, but other crises can distract public attention.

Current crises compete with the climate crisis and weaken support

To limit the consequences of the global climate crisis, the global community needs to drastically reduce its carbon emissions. However, public support for measures to achieve this goal can be attenuated by current crises, which distract people’s attention and make it more difficult to introduce political instruments that involve cost increases.

These are the results of a new study, which recommends emphasizing the urgency of climate change and associating the topic with other events perceived as urgent to increase support for measures such as fossil fuel taxation.

For the study, researchers interviewed 21,000 people in 17 European countries with the help of a research institute, questioning them about their opinion on the introduction of a fossil fuel tax.

The results showed that support for such a tax was 12% higher among participants who received information about the climate crisis beforehand than among uninformed participants.

However, if respondents were also reminded of other current crises, such as Covid-19 or the war in Ukraine, after receiving information about the climate crisis, their stated willingness to support a fossil fuel tax dropped considerably.

In concrete terms, the initial support for the introduction of the tax was around 28%. In the group that received the climate information warning, this number rose to around 40%, with 35% rejecting the tax. In the groups that were reminded of Covid-19 and the Russian invasion, support fell back to 30%, with rejection at 45%.

Keeping climate change in crisis mode

To neutralize this, according to the researchers, policymakers should place a stronger emphasis on climate change as a topic.

As important instruments, the authors highlight self-imposed deadlines, such as the International Energy Agency’s Net Zero by 2050 scenario or the EU’s “Fit for 55” plan, which regularly remind people that the current climate policy is insufficient and is behind schedule in relation to the agreed goals.

Reference:

GENSCHEL, P., LIMBERG, J. and SEELKOPF, L. (2024), The climate crisis, policy distraction and support for fuel taxation. European Journal of Political Research. https://doi.org/10.1111/1475-6765.12687

 

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