How to Get the Public on Board with Climate Reforms

The politics of climate change, including carbon pricing, remain challenging. Many climate policies foreground costs and background benefits, leaving the policies vulnerable to political attacks by fossil fuel interests. The paper presented in this Research Seminar will share a series of experiments testing strategies to build public support for specific climate policies. First, the authors will share the results from two information experiments conducted in Switzerland and Canada, the two countries that have set up rebate programs to accompany national carbon prices. The authors find limited evidence that individuals who learn about rebates they are currently receiving, shift their preferences for the rebate-generating policy. In follow-up work, the paper provides detailed cost and benefit information with survey respondents in the United States and Switzerland, tailoring this information to household size and income quintiles. Providing specific benefit and cost information increases support for climate policy, especially among low-income groups, in the abstract. However, the effects disappear in the presence of even mild political messaging. Finally, the authors present results from a conjoint experiment conducted in ten of the largest carbon-polluters globally, testing whether political coalitions for climate reforms expand when integrating social and economic policies into climate reform packages. They find strong evidence that these benefits-oriented packages enjoy increased public support, even in the presence of realistic information about program costs.