“How can we improve support in Spain for public policies proposing to fight climate change?“ is the title of the winning submission to the competition by the “la Caixa” Foundation Social Observatory to support social research projects based on surveys, 2019.

The article, written by Maria Rubio Juan, Melanie Revilla, André Pirralha and Wiebke Weber, researchers at the Research and Expertise Centre for Survey Methodology (RECSM-UPF) of the UPF Department of Political and Social Sciences, is based on an online survey of 2,290 participants residing in Spain.

The aim of the research is to understand which factors influence the public with regard to support for policies to combat climate change.

The aim of the research is to understand which factors influence the public with regard to support for policies to combat climate change in order to improve their design by the public authorities and increase their chances of success.

The research analyses respondents’ active support for three possible policies to combat climate change: banning cars that emit CO₂ by 2029; a 10% discount on water bills for households that reduce their water consumption, and a tax on carbon, implemented through eight alternative designs.

Analysis of five factors that determine public support

The first two policies (banning cars that emit CO₂ and a discount on the water bill to reduce consumption) make up the bulk of the first part of the study, which analyses five factors likely to affect people’s degree of support for actions and policies to combat the effects of climate change.

The five factors are as follows: the perceived effectiveness of the policy or action; the self-perceived individual responsibility for acting against climate change; a person’s self-perceived capacity to change his or her behaviour; resistance to change, and the distance with which people perceive climate change.

One initial conclusion of the study is that people’s level of support for each of the policies analysed is quite different: while only a third of those surveyed give active support to banning cars that emit CO₂, in the case of the water measure, the support rate is multiplied by two.

Moreover, the analysis of the five factors shows that the perception that citizens have of the effectiveness of the action taken is by far the most important factor when offering their support. Thus,  the higher the perceived effectiveness of the measure, the higher the active support it receives.

The other four factors studied can be considered secondary, and influence citizens less when explaining the degree of support for a certain measure, although the study details the influence of each of them when explaining adherence to policies.

Analysis of the effects for those affected directly and indirectly

The work, in addition to isolating the effect of each factor separately, took into account that the effects may differ between people who would be directly affected by the introduction of the measure analysed (for example, those who have a car that pollutes, or persons who consume larger amounts of water than they really need) and those that do not.

In relation to the two measures envisaged, regarding the ban on cars emitting CO₂ by 2029, support is given by 35.7% of people who do not have a car (not directly affected), and by 27.0% of those that do have a car (directly affected). Concerning discounts according to the level of water consumption, 71.5% of those directly affected offered their support, and 61.1% of those not directly affected.

If we focus on the intensity of the effect of perceived effectiveness on the degree of citizen support, this is more notable among people who would be directly affected by the two measures analysed than among those that would not be affected, although for the latter, the figure is also high, not far behind the former, with respect to the two measures.

“People are willing to support a policy designed to achieve a desired result, such as reducing CO₂ emissions and water consumption, if they have the perception that this policy will really be effective, even if this means major changes in habits”, say the researchers.

Public support for a tax on CO₂ emissions

In the second part, the study analyses the extent to which people would be willing to support a policy whereby CO₂ emissions were taxed. To do so, the respondents are posed with a hypothetical scenario in which a referendum is called on the implementation of this tax linked to gas emissions. They also conducted an experiment to see how the wording of the question determined the answer, and posited various scenarios regarding the use that would be made of the funds raised.

The results obtained indicate that Spaniards would give support to a possible tax on CO₂ emissions on two conditions: firstly, that the measure would be of a social nature, in other words, it would affect citizens differently according to their socioeconomic level, and secondly, that it would be combined with the possibility of reducing other taxes of a general nature.

“The results suggest that the use given to the funds collected through a tax on CO₂ emissions is an important factor in citizen support, to the point that we must take it into account in any debate about this kind of measure”, the researchers assert.

Thus, they also highlight the importance that the people who are at the forefront of the design and execution of public policies should focus on successfully communicating the expected effectiveness of any measures proposed, define their target audience with precision and design strategies to activate the support of everyone, individuals directly affected and those unaffected alike.

Reference article: Maria Rubio Juan, Melanie Revilla, André Pirralha and Wiebke Weber (2019). How can we improve support in Spain for public policies proposing to fight climate change?. “la Caixa” Foundation Social Observatory