School of Psychology

Attitudes towards government policies to address climate change

Researcher:            Jane Genovese

Supervisor:              Dr Tim Kurz

Date:                        A summary of results from an Honours project completed in May 2009         

___________________________________________________________________________________________________________

Whilst national surveys have indicated that many Australians are willing to make changes to their behaviour in response to climate change, it remains less certain whether Australians would support concrete governmental actions to reduce greenhouse gas emissions. This study investigated the acceptability of 25 hypothetical climate change policy initiatives as well as the influence of socio-demographic and attitudinal variables on respondents’ overall policy acceptance. In addition, the effect of individuals’ current behaviour on their level of policy acceptance in the relevant behavioural domain was investigated.

Residents (n = 286) living in six different suburbs in Perth, Western Australia, were surveyed in relation to their level of support towards various policy initiatives (market based measures, regulatory measures, and various mixtures of the two) across several behavioural domains (household electricity, car travel, meat consumption, plane travel, and food transportation) in a full factorial design. In addition, residents completed attitude scales relating to general environmental concern and attitudes towards climate change, as well as demographic and behavioural information.

Findings suggested that respondents were, overall, opposed to or unsure about the majority of carbon reduction policies presented. This is likely to have been due to the fact that the majority of policy initiatives presented in the questionnaire, if successfully implemented, would require individuals to alter their lifestyles in some way or make them pay more for engaging in carbon intensive activities.

The implementation of more efficient technologies by law policy type was highly supported more than the other policy types that required individuals to make significant alterations to their lifestyles. The behavioural domain most favoured for government intervention was household electricity.

Significant group differences in the level of support towards certain policies were found relating to age, attitudes towards climate change, gender, and political party preference. Generally, younger respondents, females and individuals with a green political preference and higher concern about climate change appeared to support the climate change policies more than others.

Respondents who were already engaging in pro-environmental behaviours in specific behavioural domains appeared to support the climate policy initiatives within those behavioural domains more than respondents who were not engaging in the pro-environmental behaviours related to the specific policy.

This study has demonstrated that policy acceptance is likely to be influenced by an individual’s attitudes towards climate change, certain demographic variables and current behaviour already being undertaken in the behavioural domain in question. These results are useful in informing policymakers of what the public is willing to accept and of the relationship between climate change attitudes, behaviour, and policy support. The findings suggest that direct energy use from cars and households and legally requiring individuals to install more efficient technologies are more acceptable to the public. Therefore, governments are more likely to be successful in focusing on engendering public support for these policy initiatives rather than on policies that target indirect energy (e.g. plane travel, food transportation, and meat consumption) that require significant lifestyle change. Whilst taking small actions (e.g. replacing one or two car journeys with bus trips every week) may not lead to the necessary carbon reductions stated by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), the current research indicates that individuals who behave in slightly more pro-environmental ways are more likely to support related carbon reduction policy initiatives. This finding therefore builds a strong case for the creation and implementation of small-scale behaviour change programmes as an important tool in preparing the public for more stringent government policy intervention.