Essay by Eric Worrall
“…the recent spike in energy prices could complicate the achievement of temperature targets…” – The more expensive fossil fuel energy is, the less people can afford to invest in energy. regenerative?
Public perception of climate mitigation policies: Evidence from transnational surveys
Prepared by Era Dabla-Norris, Thomas Helbling, Salma Khalid, Hibah Khan, Giacomo Magistretti, Alexandre Sollaci, and Krishna Srinivasan
SDN/2023/002ABSTRACT: Building community support for climate mitigation is a key prerequisite for making meaningful strides towards implementing climate mitigation policies and achieving climate mitigation. carbon. Using nationally representative individual-level surveys for 28 countries, this note sheds light on individual characteristics and beliefs related to climate risk perceptions and preferences for political climate book. Pre-existing beliefs about policy effectiveness, costs and benefits, and progressiveness are important drivers of carbon pricing. Public acceptance of carbon pricing increases if revenue is used to address distributive concerns or to subsidize green infrastructure and low-carbon technologies. Information experiments highlight the importance of improving support for policies with outstanding information on policy effectiveness and co-benefits. Surveys show that securing cooperation between countries can generate greater political support for climate action.
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Narrowing climate ambitions and policy gaps: Limiting global warming to 1.5 to 2°C above pre-industrial levels requires cutting global emissions by a quarter to half over the next decade (Black et al. 2021). ). Some 135 countries, representing more than three-quarters of global greenhouse gas emissions, have committed to net zero by mid-century. But the world is still not on track to “keep 1.5 people alive” and The recent spike in energy prices could further complicate the achievement of temperature targets. 1 Even with sufficiently ambitious commitments, broad-based policies are still needed to implement emissions reductions. As a result, narrowing climate ambitions and policy gaps remains an urgent global priority to prevent disastrous consequences for people and the economy (Georgieva 2021).
Public awareness and support for climate policies: Public support for climate policies is essential to achieving net zero. A series of recent global surveys, including the one analyzed in this note, show that most respondents consider climate change a serious problem (Dabla-Norris et al. others, forthcoming(a); Leiserowitz et al 2021, Figure 1). In principle, this perception can make a clear and convincing appeal to decision-makers to step up their ambitions. However, Public recognition of the situation does not always translate into broad support for climate policies. Some of the most economically efficient climate policies, such as comprehensive pricing of carbon emissions, often facing political resistance. 2 Thus, understanding attitudes towards climate change, what factors shape public support for climate policies in different countries, and which groups tend to hold different views is critical to helping formulate effective policy responses.
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What we found: Percentage of people who think climate change will affect their lives tends to be higher in emerging market economies, many of which are more vulnerable to climate change. However, respondents often confuse environmental protection with climate changeand up to 50 percent of respondents in some countries have a neutral opinion or no opinion on the need for policy action. Three main policy positions are the main predictors of whether people support carbon pricing: perceived effectiveness in reducing emissions, perceived fairness in distribution, and perceived equity. aware of the co-benefits (better air quality, improved health outcomes and employment), although there are country differences. Highlighting the costs of carbon pricing policies tends to reduce support, while acceptability increases as policy benefits are more prominent. Policy coverage also impacts supporting climate policies, pointing to the important role carbon revenue recycling can play to address distributive concerns. Surveys also indicate a strong sense of collective action among nations. Contrary to the government’s stated stance, a large majority of respondents in emerging market economies believe that all countries should pay to tackle climate change and burden sharing. should be based on current emissions, not historical ones.
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Read more: https://www.imf.org/-/media/Files/Publications/SDN/2023/English/SDNEA2023002.ashx
I suspect the current cycle of leftist politicians promoting Net Zero is waning. Around the world, the very politicians who have destroyed their economies in pursuit of Net Zero seem to be in trouble with voters.
Consider the United States and Australia. I really doubt that people’s acceptance of expensive energy and gasoline in Australia and the US is declining. People still have a long way to go before their belief in the illusion of net zero collapses, but the Republican congressional election is an interesting development, even if it’s not a red wave. that many people expect. The next election cycle will be very interesting.
In the UK, The British Conservative Party is headed for a disastrous defeat in the next electionunless they can reduce their energy bills. Given that fracking is still banned and since British politicians have taken no serious steps to increase domestic energy production, the UK Government’s only hope for a quick change is if the country’s cheap gas Russia began to flow again. I believe this explains Their enthusiasm for arming Ukraine and their consideration of supplying weapons could lead to escalation.. I believe Britain hopes its support for Ukraine will cause the rapid collapse of the Putin regime and a flood of cheap gas from the desperate and broken Russian economy, just in time for next British election. Last December, Deputy Chief of the Defense Staff General Magowan admits serving British troops deployed on secret missions inside Ukraine. I believe the British Conservatives would rather risk World War 3, risk a direct confrontation between British soldiers in service and Russian forces in Ukraine, than change course because of Net Zero’s madness.
As for the poor countries, I am pleased that the IMF acknowledged that many of the respondents that climate change is affecting them actually mean that pollution is affecting them – “… respondents often confuse environmental protection with climate change …”. Pollution is a terrible problem in countries like China and elsewhere with weak oversight of industrial activity.
Since many people in poor countries have clearly misunderstood the question, it seems likely that support for expensive carbon reduction policies around the world is actually close to zero.
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