The introduction of policies that increase the price of carbon is central to limiting the adverse effects of global warming. Conventional wisdom holds that, of the possible cost paths, gradually raising costs relating to climate action will receive the most public support. Here, we explore mass support for dynamic cost paths in four major economies (France, Germany, the United Kingdom and the United States). We find that, for a given level of average costs, increasing cost paths receive little support whereas constant cost schedules are backed by majorities in all countries irrespective of whether those average costs are low or high. Experimental evidence indicates that constant cost paths significantly reduce opposition to climate action relative to increasing cost paths. Preferences for climate cost paths are related to the time horizons of individuals and their desire to smooth consumption over time.

引入提高碳价的政策对于限制全球变暖的不利影响至关重要。传统观点认为，在可能的成本途径中，逐步提高与气候行动有关的成本将得到最多的公众支持。在这里，我们探索了对四个主要经济体（法国，德国，英国和美国）的动态成本路径的大规模支持。我们发现，对于给定的平均成本水平，不断增加的成本路径几乎得不到支持，而所有国家的大多数人都支持恒定的成本计划，无论这些平均成本是低是高。实验证据表明，相对于增加成本的路径，恒定成本的路径显着减少了对气候行动的抵制。