Seeing other countries making an effort on climate policy makes people more supportive at home

Embargoed until: Publicly released: 2025-12-11 06:00

International

Photo by Ella Ivanescu on Unsplash

People are more supportive of climate policies in their own country if they believe other countries are making significant efforts themselves, according to an international survey of 4,000 Chinese, Indian, Japanese and US citizens. The team found that people who perceived that other countries were likely and willing to take action to reduce climate change, or that the major emitters in the world were currently making substantial efforts, were more supportive of implementing climate policies in their own country. The authors say that reciprocity plays an important role in mobilising public support.

Journal/
conference: PLOS Climate

Research:Paper

Organisation/s: The Hong Kong Univeristy of Science and Technology, China

Funder: The work described in this study was supported by grants awarded to Kim-Pong Tam from the Research Grants Council of the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region, China (Project No. 16601122 to KPT); HKUST Institute for Emerging Market Studies with support from EY, Hong Kong, China (Project No. IEMS19HS02 to KPT); and the Fiscal 2019 Grant for Japan-Related Research Projects, The Sumitomo Foundation, Japan (Project No. SFJP20HS01 to KPT); and a grant awarded to Malcolm Fairbrother by the Swedish Research Council (Grant No. 2020-04725 to MF). The funders had no role in study design, data collection and analysis, decision to publish, or preparation of the manuscript.

Media Contact/s

Contact details are only visible to registered journalists.