70 per cent people surveyed in US favour global climate policy: Study

A climate policy at the global level to tackle warming might be strongly backed by public, a study has claimed. Global carbon pricing, coupled with a system of redistributing the revenues — either among citizens or for investing in mitigating climate change -— is considered by economists as a ‘reference climate policy’ as it can both reduce emissions and promote equity.

Co-authored by researchers at the Potsdam Institute for Climate Impact Research, Germany, the study, in 2021, surveyed over 40,000 people from 20 countries, which account for about three-quarters of the global carbon emissions. The team found a “strong and genuine” support for global climate policy, with 70 per cent people favouring it in the US and 94 per cent in Japan. The findings, published in the journal Nature Human Behaviour, also showed that respondents backed policies, including a global carbon pricing scheme, in which the remaining global emissions budget — how much can we emit more before we breach 2 degrees Celsius warming — is divided according to population, with countries receiving emission rights they can trade.

“We were pleasantly surprised by the results. Politicians should not be too afraid of citizens when pushing ahead with global climate protection,” co-author Linus Mattauch, head of societal transition and well-being research group at Potsdam Institute for Climate Impact Research, said.

A second survey, conducted in 2023 among 8,000 people in the US and European Union, showed that the respondents supported a concrete timeline for carbon pricing — with, for example, $90 per tonne of carbon dioxide in 2030, and a per capita reimbursement of $30 per month for every adult worldwide. This would be a substantial financial inflow to the Global South, where per capita carbon emissions are relatively low and where 30 dollars has more purchasing power than in the wealthy Global North, researchers said.

They added that three-quarters of the participants in the EU, and more than half in the US, expressed support for the idea, despite understanding that their own country might incur a financial loss under these conditions. “When asked ‘At which level(s) do you think public policies to tackle climate change need to be put in place? 70 per cent (in the US) to 94 per cent (in Japan) choose the global level,” the authors wrote.   “Three quarters of Europeans and half of Americans support the GCS (global climate scheme), even as they understand its cost to them,” they wrote.

Lead author Adrien Fabre, from the International Research Center on the Environment and Development (CIRED), France, said, “Against this backdrop, the question is why the international community is not making faster progress.” “How misunderstandings and misperceptions arise in public discourse, and what role interest groups play is yet unclear. Perhaps the boundaries of what is considered realistic are shifting. Our work could contribute to this,” Fabre added.