Economic conditions and support for the prioritisation of environmental protection during the Great Recession

Kenny, John

doi:10.1080/09644016.2019.1680074

Cited by 44 publications

(54 citation statements)

References 42 publications

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“…European Parliament elections are convenient for our purpose for several reasons: they take place approximately at the same time in all EU countries; the use of proportional rules for the allocation of seats implies that the extent to which voters engage in strategic voting (i.e., voting for the "lesser evil") is limited, and therefore vote shares provide a more accurate snapshot of the first preferences of voters; it is also convenient that electoral rules are approximately similar across countries, making the election returns more comparable across space. Third, we provide new empirical evidence on the relationship between economic conditions and public views on environmental issues, complementing previous findings in the empirical literature (Duijndam and Beukering, 2020;Kenny, 2020). Not only does covering a long series of data on concern and voting over the last two and three decades, respectively allows us to explore time variations extensively, our large cross-section of subnational regions also captures heterogeneity between units of observation.…”

Section: Introductionsupporting

confidence: 58%

Voting for Tomorrow: Climate Change, Environmental Concern, and Green Voting

et al. 2021

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In the past decade, the world has witnessed increased climate change impacts with many countries experiencing more frequent and more severe climate extremes. With public support being fundamental in scaling up climate action, here, we analyze the impact of exposure to climate extremes on environmental concern and Green voting for a large panel of European countries. Combining highresolution climatological data with regionally aggregated and harmonized information on environmental concern (42 Eurobarometer surveys, 2002(42 Eurobarometer surveys, -2019 and European Parliamentary electoral outcomes (7 elections, 1990-2019, 28 countries) at the subnational level, we find a significant and sizeable effect of temperature anomalies, heat episodes and dry spells in the previous 12 months on green concern and voting. The effects differ significantly by region and are most pronounced in regions with a cooler Continental or temperate Atlantic climate, and weaker in regions with a warmer Mediterranean climate. The relationship is moderated by regional GDP suggesting that climate change experience increase public support for climate action only under favorable economic conditions. By empirically documenting the important role of contextual influences and regional differences on green concern and voting, our findings have important implications for the current efforts to promote and implement climate actions in line with the Paris Agreement.

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Section: Introductionsupporting

confidence: 58%

Voting for Tomorrow: Climate Change, Environmental Concern, and Green Voting

et al. 2021

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“…Most previous studies find that deteriorating economic conditions can decrease concern about climate change (Brulle et al, 2012;Scruggs & Benegal, 2012;Shum, 2012), although some studies doubt this relationship (Mildenberger & Leiserowitz, 2017). Cross-sectional studies on the relationship between economic performance and climate change concern also find mixed results (Kenny, 2019;Mayer & Smith, 2019). By simultaneously analyzing longitudinal and cross-sectional effects over an extensive time period, this study provides a more rigorous and comprehensive picture of the impact of economic factors than does the existing literature, and it is the first to assess its dynamism over time.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Understanding public concern about climate change in Europe, 2008–2017: the influence of economic factors and right-wing populism

Duijndam

Beukering

2020

Climate Policy

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European survey data shows strong temporal fluctuations in climate change concern within European countries and large differences in concern between these countries. However, there is as yet no comprehensive understanding of what drives these longitudinal and cross-sectional patterns. To fill this knowledge gap, this study analyzes data of over 155,000 survey respondents from 28 European countries over the period 2008-2017. This study is the first to apply within-between random effects models to simultaneously analyze longitudinal and cross-sectional determinants of climate change concern, and examine if and how the influence of these determinants has changed over time. Substantively, it researches the nexus between climate change and two other crises that have captured the imagination of European publics over the studied period: the liberal democracy crisis and the economic crisis. The former is characterized by the rise of right-wing populist parties in Europe. Right-wing populism is often at odds with climate change policies, and its rise in popularity could have undermined public concern about climate change. We find only a weak negative longitudinal relationship between such concern and the popularity of right-wing populist parties, and no significant cross-sectional relationship. We find that economic performance is strongly positively associated with concern, with GDP per capita being most important for explaining crosscountry differences in concern, and deviations in unemployment being most important for explaining longitudinal within-country change. However, this negative longitudinal relationship with unemployment weakens considerably over time, illustrating the importance of including dynamic effects in modeling efforts to generate more reliable results. Key policy insights. The percentage of European respondents mentioning climate change as one of the most serious world problems declined from 65% in 2008 to 43% in 2017.. This study does not find a strong direct relationship between the rise of climate skeptic right-wing populist parties and public concern about climate change.. Economic factors are important predictors of climate change concern, with GDP per capita being the dominant driver of between-country differences, and unemployment the dominant within-country predictor.. The marginal impact of unemployment was much stronger during, rather than after, the economic crisis.

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“…Initiatives to improve the safety of public transportation could help avoid the shift that we observe in Taiwan. Furthermore, research suggests that individuals de-prioritize environmental protection following periods of high unemployment (Kenny, 2019). Our findings suggests that scaling back air pollution regulations due to a perceived tradeoff between environmental protection and economic growth could compound the deterioration in air quality.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 81%