The Climate Decade: Changing Attitudes on Three Continents
46 Pages Posted: 2 Dec 2020 Last revised: 7 Jan 2021
Date Written: May 1, 2020
Abstract
We examine how attitudes and willingness to pay (WTP) for climate policies have changed over the past decade in the United States, China, and Sweden. 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 we find convergence in public support for climate policy across countries, there is considerable divergence in climate attitudes and preferences within countries, particularly the United States. Political polarization explains part of this divergence.
Keywords: Climate change, willingness to pay, climate policy attitudes, political polarization, multi-country, China, United States, Sweden
JEL Classification: Q51, Q54
Suggested Citation: Suggested Citation