Ecol. Econ. 151, 173–183 (2018).

Although countries have begun to adopt mitigation and adaptation policies, it remains uncertain whether there exists sufficient citizen support to enact the policies needed to achieve the Paris Agreement’s goals. A particularly difficult hurdle is that support for climate policies requires consideration of long time horizons that may be inconsistent with individual interests.

Mark Andor and colleagues at the RWI-Leibniz Institute for Economic Research and Ruhr-Universität Bochum draw on data from surveys conducted between 2012 and 2015 on over 12,000 German households to examine whether there is an association between age and attitudes towards climate policy that is characterized by short-term costs and long-term benefits. They show that elderly people have less concern for combating climate change and are less likely to support allocating public resources to climate-friendly policies. For other global challenges, they find that concern increases with age.

This research shows that demographic trends can not only influence climate change through aggregate growth and consumption patterns, but also through individual policy preferences.