Increased support for climate action in China and the United States
The decade between 2009 and 2019 has seen increases in support for climate action in China and the United States, with support remaining high in Sweden. A survey conducted by, among others, researchers from the Department of Economics show increased willingness to pay for climate mitigation.
Using identical surveys a decade apart, the researchers Fredrick Carlsson, Mitesh Kataria, Elina Lampi, Åsa Löfgren och Thomas Sterner from the Department of Economics, with Alan Krupnick, Ping Qin, och Xiaojun Yang, examine how attitudes and willingness to pay (WTP) for climate policies have changed in the United States, China, and Sweden. The study "The Climate Decade: Changing Attitudes on Three Continents" has been published by the research institute Resources for the Future.
All three countries exhibit an increased willingness to pay for climate mitigation. Ten years ago, Sweden had a larger fraction of believers in anthropogenic climate change and a higher WTP for mitigation, but today the national averages are more similar.
Although the researchers find convergence in public support for climate policy across countries, there is considerable divergence in both WTP and climate attitudes within countries. Political polarization explains part of this divergence.
More info and the full study can be found at the Resources for the Future web site
