Virtual icon Virtual Panel - Climate Policy, Public Opinion, and Political Attitudes (II)

Abstract

Climate policy debates are increasingly polarised, with questions of fairness, economic trade-offs, and ideological divisions shaping public attitudes. While some citizens demand urgent climate action, others resist policy measures based on concerns over fairness, economic consequences, or distrust in political institutions. Understanding the drivers of public support and opposition is essential for crafting policies that are not only effective but also publicly acceptable. This panel examines how fairness considerations, political contestation, framing strategies, and socio-economic conditions influence public opinion on climate policies. Closely connected to the panel Climate Policy, Public Opinion, and Political Attitudes (I), which focuses on broader ideological structures, local economic conditions, and the role of political narratives in shaping climate policy attitudes, this second panel examines the micro-level drivers of climate policy support. This includes individual fairness perceptions, framing effects, and the impact of economic and political polarisation. Specifically, the papers in this session explore how different fairness principles shape climate policy acceptability, how public contestation redefines policy success and failure in climate policymaking, and how affective polarisation shapes attitudes toward renewable energy, particularly through environmental and far-right messaging. Additionally, results are presented from a survey experiment studying the effects of framing climate policies through economic benefits, energy independence, and climate mitigation; and an analysis of how climate change phenomena and economic deprivation contribute to the gap between concern for climate change and policy support.

Title	Details
The Impact of Climate Change Phenoma and Economic Deprivation in the Concern-Policy Support Gap	View Paper Details
Decomposing Fairness: Exploring Fairness Principles as Determinants of Climate Policy Acceptability	View Paper Details
Redefining Policy Success and Failure: The Role of Public Contestation in Climate Policymaking	View Paper Details
Affective Polarisation and Climate Change. How Environmental and Far-Right Messengers Shape Public Attitudes Towards Renewable Energy	View Paper Details
Multilevel Normative Values of Climate Change Discourses	View Paper Details