The successful implementation of climate policies is influenced by the public support that they can gather. A variety of beliefs and attitudes shape citizens' preferences on this topic.
Ekaterina Rhodes from the Simon Fraser University, Canada, and co-authors show that concerns for the protection of the environment and concern for the consequences of climate change are somehow distinct concepts. The authors compare two groups of Canadian citizens who show a moderate support for climate policies in general, but with important distinctions.
One group of citizens are quite concerned with the environment in general but less concerned about climate change, and they are willing to support regulatory-type policies (such as emissions limits) but clearly oppose market-based solutions like carbon taxes. Another group is more concerned specifically with climate change but less with environment and they would support carbon taxes. These distinct perceptions of climate change and environmental issues can be highly relevant for the successful implementation of carbon tax policies, given that 70% of the citizens in the latter group but only 2% of the former group show some support for them.
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Graffeo, M. Conflicting climate attitudes. Nature Clim Change 7, 314 (2017). https://doi.org/10.1038/nclimate3293
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/nclimate3293
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