Public Perceptions of Climate Change: A Socio-Political Approach

Abstract

Abstract The past few years have been a challenging period not only because of the COVID-19 pandemic but also because of the incidents related to global climate change. Similar to the impacts of the pandemic, the environmental risks are also expected to last for decades. Although scientifically accepted within the broader fields of academia (Lorenzoni 2006), public consensus proves significant variation between various geographies (Zhang et al. 2018). Such a variation is likely to affect the European countries’ policy contexts substantially. The attitudes towards climate change give a certain direction to the decision-making, policy design, and implication processes in the age of severe environmental challenges. Considering this background, this study examines the major socio-political determinants that influence people’s perceptions about climate change in the context of Europe. Based on the data from the 2015 Eurobarometer Survey of “Climate Change, Biodiversity, and Discrimination of Minority Groups”, and using the methodology of ordinary least squares (OLS) regression analysis, it tests the following hypotheses: Firstly, men are less likely to be concerned about climate change than women. However, this effect will be partially mediated by the extent of pro-environmental values and norms. Secondly, self-identified liberals are more likely to be concerned about climate change. However, this effect will be partially mediated by the extent of pro-environmental values and norms. Thirdly, the effect of being male will be moderated by marital status, referring to “wives’ effect.” As a result of the regression analysis, first two hypotheses are confirmed while there is found no support for the third one on marital status. Limitations, and implications of the findings, as well as the directions for future research about the public perceptions on climate change are discussed.