Attributing extreme weather to climate change may lead to more support for climate policies

Embargoed until: Publicly released: 2025-07-01 19:00

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How much people believe extreme weather events such as droughts, floods, or heavy storms are the result of climate change may impact their support for climate change policies, according to Australian and international research. Being exposed to extreme events did not predict policy support for most of the types of events they looked at, with the exceptions being bushfires and heavy rain. The authors say that just experiencing extreme weather events might not be enough to increase support for climate change policies unless people also link these events to climate change.

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Journal/
conference: Nature Climate Change

Research:Paper

Organisation/s: Macquarie University, The University of Western Australia, The University of New South Wales, University of Tasmania, The Australian National University, La Trobe University, ETH Zurich, Switzerland

Funder: See paper for extensive funding information

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