Public Support for Climate Policies: The Limited Impact of Benefits and the Weight of Costs
P5-S124-4
Presented by: Marc Guinjoan
In addressing climate change, public opinion often supports the need for urgent and significant action, yet implementing climate policies remains challenging due to mixed public acceptance. This article examines how cost and benefit framings influence support for climate policies through an experimental design embedded in two surveys conducted in April and October 2024 (N=3,000) on representative samples of the Spanish population (up to 75 years old). We focus on 10 public policies related to climate change, assessing how exposure to either the costs or benefits of these policies shapes public support. Our results reveal that priming individuals with information about costs significantly reduces support for climate policies, regardless of the type of policy. In contrast, displaying the benefits associated with these policies has a limited effect: while small positive impacts are observed in some cases, most policies show null effects relative to the control group. These findings highlight the asymmetric influence of cost and benefit framings on public opinion, underscoring the challenges of gaining public endorsement for climate policies. They also suggest that emphasizing the benefits alone is insufficient to overcome resistance when costs are salient. By shedding light on the conditions under which climate policies gain or lose support, this study provides insights for policymakers aiming to design more effective communication strategies to enhance public acceptance of climate action.
Keywords: Climate policies, climate change, cost-benefit framing, survey experiment, Spain.