Acceptance of climate-oriented policy measures under the COVID-19 crisis: an empirical analysis for Germany,Climate Policy

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Acceptance of climate-oriented policy measures under the COVID-19 crisis: an empirical analysis for Germany
Climate Policy ( IF 5.3 ) Pub Date : 2021-01-08 , DOI: 10.1080/14693062.2020.1864269
Daniel Engler ₁ , Elke D. Groh ₁ , Gunnar Gutsche ₁ , Andreas Ziegler ₁

Affiliation

ABSTRACT

Based on data from a representative survey among citizens in Germany during the first peak of the COVID-19 crisis, this paper empirically examines the acceptance of climate-oriented economic stimulus programmes and several further individual climate policy measures. On the basis of our descriptive analysis, we find no evidence that support for such policy measures in Germany is very different during the COVID-19 crisis, compared to before the crisis. However, our econometric analysis points to the relevance of economic concerns. For example, a perceived deterioration of the general economic situation due to the COVID-19 crisis (and thus sociotropic concerns) has a significantly negative effect on the acceptance of climate-oriented economic stimulus programmes. Our econometric analysis also reveals that ‘pocketbook’ or egotropic concerns are even more relevant since individuals with concerns about their personal economic situation due to the COVID-19 crisis are significantly less supportive of several individual climate policy measures, especially if these lead to higher costs in daily life and are thus directly financially unfavourable. In addition, an identification with socially oriented policy has a significantly positive effect on support for climate policy measures that are financially beneficial for socially underprivileged groups and a significantly negative effect on support for policy measures that are financially unfavourable for them. Our estimation results thus point to the importance of social aspects for the acceptance of climate-oriented policy measures. We also discuss several climate policy implications. For example, our estimation results suggest that individually perceived economic and financial concerns due to the COVID-19 crisis should be addressed and ideally reduced to increase public support of climate-oriented policy measures.

Key policy insights

We find no evidence that the acceptance of climate policy measures in Germany is very different during the COVID-19 crisis, compared to before the crisis.
Our empirical results are in line with the idea that economic downturns or crises can decrease the acceptance of climate-oriented policy measures among individuals with concerns about their personal economic situation.
Our empirical analysis also points to the relevance of social aspects for support for climate policy measures.
Therefore, general economic concerns due to the COVID-19 crisis should be addressed and ideally reduced to increase public support for climate-oriented policy measures.
In addition, successful climate policy should be socially oriented and should consider distribution effects.

中文翻译：

在 COVID-19 危机下接受以气候为导向的政策措施：德国的实证分析

摘要

根据在 COVID-19 危机的第一个高峰期间对德国公民进行的代表性调查的数据，本文实证检验了以气候为导向的经济刺激计划和一些进一步的个别气候政策措施的接受程度。根据我们的描述性分析，我们没有发现任何证据表明，与危机前相比，在 COVID-19 危机期间德国对此类政策措施的支持有很大不同。然而，我们的计量经济学分析指出了经济问题的相关性。例如，由于 COVID-19 危机（以及因此对社会性问题的担忧）导致整体经济状况恶化，这对接受以气候为导向的经济刺激计划具有显着的负面影响。我们的计量经济学分析还表明，“袖珍本”或利己主义的担忧更为相关，因为因 COVID-19 危机而担心个人经济状况的个人对若干个人气候政策措施的支持明显较少，尤其是如果这些措施导致更高的成本在日常生活中，因此在经济上直接不利。此外，认同以社会为导向的政策对支持在经济上对社会弱势群体有利的气候政策措施具有显着的积极影响，而对在经济上对他们不利的政策措施的支持具有显着的负面影响。因此，我们的估计结果表明社会因素对于接受气候导向的政策措施的重要性。我们还讨论了几个气候政策的影响。例如，我们的估计结果表明，应解决并理想地减少因 COVID-19 危机引起的个人感知的经济和金融问题，以增加公众对气候导向政策措施的支持。