Pub Date : 2024-10-13DOI: 10.1038/s44168-024-00167-5
Hilary Graham, Su Golder
‘People’ are central both to populism, an ideology in which ‘people’ are pitted against corrupt elites, and to climate science and policy, which advocate ‘people-centred’ climate action. Our Brief Communication explores references to climate change and ‘people’ on Twitter (now X). Populist tropes (the people against corrupt elites) were not restricted to climate-sceptical tweets; they extended to tweets that recognised climate change was real but expressed mistrust about climate actions.
{"title":"Social media engagement in people and climate change","authors":"Hilary Graham, Su Golder","doi":"10.1038/s44168-024-00167-5","DOIUrl":"10.1038/s44168-024-00167-5","url":null,"abstract":"‘People’ are central both to populism, an ideology in which ‘people’ are pitted against corrupt elites, and to climate science and policy, which advocate ‘people-centred’ climate action. Our Brief Communication explores references to climate change and ‘people’ on Twitter (now X). Populist tropes (the people against corrupt elites) were not restricted to climate-sceptical tweets; they extended to tweets that recognised climate change was real but expressed mistrust about climate actions.","PeriodicalId":186004,"journal":{"name":"npj Climate Action","volume":" ","pages":"1-4"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2024-10-13","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://www.nature.com/articles/s44168-024-00167-5.pdf","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"142435937","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"OA","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2024-10-13DOI: 10.1038/s44168-024-00172-8
Matthew T. Ballew, Sri Saahitya Uppalapati, Teresa Myers, Jennifer Carman, Eryn Campbell, Seth A. Rosenthal, John E. Kotcher, Anthony Leiserowitz, Edward Maibach
The mental health impacts of climate change are increasingly documented; however, less research has investigated the relationship between climate change-related psychological distress and engagement with the issue. The results from two national probability samples of U.S. adults show that 16% report at least one feature of climate change psychological distress and that certain groups have higher levels of distress than others (e.g., Hispanic/Latinos, lower income adults, younger adults). Importantly, people experiencing distress are more likely to engage in collective action on climate change or express a willingness to do so, even when controlling for several correlates of environmental behavior (e.g., political ideology, collective efficacy beliefs). These findings highlight that many Americans are experiencing psychological distress from climate change, and those who do are more involved in collective climate action. People experiencing such distress may benefit from resources to support mental health and engagement with climate change.
{"title":"Climate change psychological distress is associated with increased collective climate action in the U.S.","authors":"Matthew T. Ballew, Sri Saahitya Uppalapati, Teresa Myers, Jennifer Carman, Eryn Campbell, Seth A. Rosenthal, John E. Kotcher, Anthony Leiserowitz, Edward Maibach","doi":"10.1038/s44168-024-00172-8","DOIUrl":"10.1038/s44168-024-00172-8","url":null,"abstract":"The mental health impacts of climate change are increasingly documented; however, less research has investigated the relationship between climate change-related psychological distress and engagement with the issue. The results from two national probability samples of U.S. adults show that 16% report at least one feature of climate change psychological distress and that certain groups have higher levels of distress than others (e.g., Hispanic/Latinos, lower income adults, younger adults). Importantly, people experiencing distress are more likely to engage in collective action on climate change or express a willingness to do so, even when controlling for several correlates of environmental behavior (e.g., political ideology, collective efficacy beliefs). These findings highlight that many Americans are experiencing psychological distress from climate change, and those who do are more involved in collective climate action. People experiencing such distress may benefit from resources to support mental health and engagement with climate change.","PeriodicalId":186004,"journal":{"name":"npj Climate Action","volume":" ","pages":"1-10"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2024-10-13","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://www.nature.com/articles/s44168-024-00172-8.pdf","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"142435940","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"OA","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2024-10-11DOI: 10.1038/s44168-024-00169-3
Lisa Y. Seiler
One barrier to action on climate change is not talking about it. The majority of residents of the United States and Canada are concerned about climate change1,2 but are reluctant to discuss it with family and friends1,3–5. Finding opportunities to promote conversation about climate change within existing social circles would help to increase the acceptability of climate actions6,7. In this study, 32 semi-structured interviews were held with representatives of nature-related organisations in Ontario, Canada, to ascertain how they perceive climate change. Most interviewees noticed local effects of climate change and were either Alarmed or Concerned about climate change, referencing Global Warming’s Six Americas3. Many worried about their chosen activity or their offspring. This suggests that nature lovers, who might distance themselves from the environmental movement8, could be amenable to discussing and acting on climate change. This article adds to the literature on laypeople’s understanding of climate change9–11.
{"title":"Barriers and pathways to climate action among nature lovers","authors":"Lisa Y. Seiler","doi":"10.1038/s44168-024-00169-3","DOIUrl":"10.1038/s44168-024-00169-3","url":null,"abstract":"One barrier to action on climate change is not talking about it. The majority of residents of the United States and Canada are concerned about climate change1,2 but are reluctant to discuss it with family and friends1,3–5. Finding opportunities to promote conversation about climate change within existing social circles would help to increase the acceptability of climate actions6,7. In this study, 32 semi-structured interviews were held with representatives of nature-related organisations in Ontario, Canada, to ascertain how they perceive climate change. Most interviewees noticed local effects of climate change and were either Alarmed or Concerned about climate change, referencing Global Warming’s Six Americas3. Many worried about their chosen activity or their offspring. This suggests that nature lovers, who might distance themselves from the environmental movement8, could be amenable to discussing and acting on climate change. This article adds to the literature on laypeople’s understanding of climate change9–11.","PeriodicalId":186004,"journal":{"name":"npj Climate Action","volume":" ","pages":"1-8"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2024-10-11","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://www.nature.com/articles/s44168-024-00169-3.pdf","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"142435942","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"OA","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2024-10-11DOI: 10.1038/s44168-024-00158-6
Filippo Maria D’Arcangelo, Tobias Kruse, Mauro Pisu
To guide climate change mitigation efforts, we identify and characterize the different types of mitigation strategies countries adopted over the last two decades. The analysis exploits the novel and rich policy repository of the OECD’s Climate Actions and Policies Measurement Framework (CAPMF), covering more than 120 policy variables and 50 countries over 2000–2020. All countries in the dataset increased the number of climate policy instruments and their stringency over the past two decades, but at a different pace and using different policy instruments. Using statistical cluster analysis, we identify four distinct types of mitigation strategies, which differ in the composition and stringency of mitigation policies. Regression results show that emissions are negatively associated with the overall stringency of the country’s mitigation strategies. Evidence also supports the hypothesis that this relationship is stronger for mitigation strategies comprising a more diverse set of instruments, pointing to possible policy synergies.
{"title":"Identifying and tracking climate change mitigation strategies with a cluster-based assessment","authors":"Filippo Maria D’Arcangelo, Tobias Kruse, Mauro Pisu","doi":"10.1038/s44168-024-00158-6","DOIUrl":"10.1038/s44168-024-00158-6","url":null,"abstract":"To guide climate change mitigation efforts, we identify and characterize the different types of mitigation strategies countries adopted over the last two decades. The analysis exploits the novel and rich policy repository of the OECD’s Climate Actions and Policies Measurement Framework (CAPMF), covering more than 120 policy variables and 50 countries over 2000–2020. All countries in the dataset increased the number of climate policy instruments and their stringency over the past two decades, but at a different pace and using different policy instruments. Using statistical cluster analysis, we identify four distinct types of mitigation strategies, which differ in the composition and stringency of mitigation policies. Regression results show that emissions are negatively associated with the overall stringency of the country’s mitigation strategies. Evidence also supports the hypothesis that this relationship is stronger for mitigation strategies comprising a more diverse set of instruments, pointing to possible policy synergies.","PeriodicalId":186004,"journal":{"name":"npj Climate Action","volume":" ","pages":"1-14"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2024-10-11","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://www.nature.com/articles/s44168-024-00158-6.pdf","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"142435946","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"OA","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2024-10-09DOI: 10.1038/s44168-024-00173-7
Merethe Dotterud Leiren, Fay Farstad
The European Green Deal (EGD) has had a significant impact on EU member states. In this article, we examine the extent to which it can also have large consequences for non-members. Based on a qualitative approach comparing Norway and the UK, and drawing on a burgeoning literature on ‘turbulence’, we ask whether the EGD creates turbulence in non-member states, what the nature of this turbulence is, and whether the extent and nature of turbulence varies with how closely affiliated a non-member is with the EU. Despite the ambitious climate policies of both countries, we identify a significant amount of turbulence generated by the EGD. Interestingly, we also find that turbulence increases with a closer EU-affiliation. However, our analysis also reveals an impressive capacity in both countries to adapt to their turbulent conditions, and a surprising durability of climate and energy policy in the face of turbulence.
{"title":"The European Green Deal and turbulence for non-member states","authors":"Merethe Dotterud Leiren, Fay Farstad","doi":"10.1038/s44168-024-00173-7","DOIUrl":"10.1038/s44168-024-00173-7","url":null,"abstract":"The European Green Deal (EGD) has had a significant impact on EU member states. In this article, we examine the extent to which it can also have large consequences for non-members. Based on a qualitative approach comparing Norway and the UK, and drawing on a burgeoning literature on ‘turbulence’, we ask whether the EGD creates turbulence in non-member states, what the nature of this turbulence is, and whether the extent and nature of turbulence varies with how closely affiliated a non-member is with the EU. Despite the ambitious climate policies of both countries, we identify a significant amount of turbulence generated by the EGD. Interestingly, we also find that turbulence increases with a closer EU-affiliation. However, our analysis also reveals an impressive capacity in both countries to adapt to their turbulent conditions, and a surprising durability of climate and energy policy in the face of turbulence.","PeriodicalId":186004,"journal":{"name":"npj Climate Action","volume":" ","pages":"1-9"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2024-10-09","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://www.nature.com/articles/s44168-024-00173-7.pdf","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"142397584","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"OA","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2024-10-08DOI: 10.1038/s44168-024-00166-6
Erin Friedman
National adaptation plans offer strategic frameworks that enable countries to integrate adaptation action with sustainable development agendas. However, the process lacks multi-actor coordination that incorporates the values of diverse interest groups, presenting obstacles to fostering inclusive development decisions. This commentary proposes incorporating IPCC perspectives on climate resilient development pathways into the national adaptation planning process to align sustainable development ambition with adaptation practice.
{"title":"Climate resilient development pathways boost inclusive national adaptation action","authors":"Erin Friedman","doi":"10.1038/s44168-024-00166-6","DOIUrl":"10.1038/s44168-024-00166-6","url":null,"abstract":"National adaptation plans offer strategic frameworks that enable countries to integrate adaptation action with sustainable development agendas. However, the process lacks multi-actor coordination that incorporates the values of diverse interest groups, presenting obstacles to fostering inclusive development decisions. This commentary proposes incorporating IPCC perspectives on climate resilient development pathways into the national adaptation planning process to align sustainable development ambition with adaptation practice.","PeriodicalId":186004,"journal":{"name":"npj Climate Action","volume":" ","pages":"1-4"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2024-10-08","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://www.nature.com/articles/s44168-024-00166-6.pdf","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"142397587","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"OA","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2024-10-07DOI: 10.1038/s44168-024-00168-4
Emil Moldovan, Todd Cort, Matthew Goldberg, Jennifer Marlon, Anthony Leiserowitz
Asset owners will play a foundational role in how the financial system will respond to the immediate and long-term physical, transition, legal, and other risks and opportunities emerging from global climate change. We investigated how asset owners incorporated climate change in their investments using a process framework of organizational change. We conducted more than 50 interviews with asset owners with over $750B assets under management, and their stakeholders, including beneficiaries, lawyers, consultants, and asset managers. These asset owners included retail investors, high-net-worth family offices, pensions, foundations, endowments, trusts, and corporations. Interviewees discussed their investment strategies related to climate change, including mitigation, adaptation, profit, philanthropic finance, risks, and opportunities. We found that legal stakeholders sometimes drove conversations, that trustees gradually matured in their fiduciary identities, and that staff struggled to operationalize investment mandates. We summarize proposed interventions that will help asset owners better serve their commitments.
{"title":"The evolving climate change investing strategies of asset owners","authors":"Emil Moldovan, Todd Cort, Matthew Goldberg, Jennifer Marlon, Anthony Leiserowitz","doi":"10.1038/s44168-024-00168-4","DOIUrl":"10.1038/s44168-024-00168-4","url":null,"abstract":"Asset owners will play a foundational role in how the financial system will respond to the immediate and long-term physical, transition, legal, and other risks and opportunities emerging from global climate change. We investigated how asset owners incorporated climate change in their investments using a process framework of organizational change. We conducted more than 50 interviews with asset owners with over $750B assets under management, and their stakeholders, including beneficiaries, lawyers, consultants, and asset managers. These asset owners included retail investors, high-net-worth family offices, pensions, foundations, endowments, trusts, and corporations. Interviewees discussed their investment strategies related to climate change, including mitigation, adaptation, profit, philanthropic finance, risks, and opportunities. We found that legal stakeholders sometimes drove conversations, that trustees gradually matured in their fiduciary identities, and that staff struggled to operationalize investment mandates. We summarize proposed interventions that will help asset owners better serve their commitments.","PeriodicalId":186004,"journal":{"name":"npj Climate Action","volume":" ","pages":"1-9"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2024-10-07","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://www.nature.com/articles/s44168-024-00168-4.pdf","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"142397593","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"OA","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2024-10-07DOI: 10.1038/s44168-024-00164-8
Fedor A. Dokshin
Climate advocates look optimistically to policy feedback as a mechanism for locking-in a decarbonization policy trajectory, but little research has examined whether and how climate legislation creates constituencies that could provide future political support. This article focuses on incentive programs supporting investment in solar PV and the potential for policy feedback through participating households. We first develop a framework of feedback potential that considers the volume and partisanship of incentive program beneficiaries and their distribution across electoral districts. We then apply the framework to New York State’s solar PV incentive program, which enabled over 140,000 households to install solar PV. We find that the number of solar PV incentive beneficiaries is positively associated with Republican vote share, suggesting potential for a strong pro-solar constituency in the pivotal, Republican-led districts. Within electoral districts, however, beneficiaries skew Democratic, raising questions about the direction of policy feedback. The results carry implications for the kind of politics that incentives in the Inflation Reduction Act may set in motion in the coming years.
{"title":"Assessing potential for policy feedback from renewable energy incentive programs","authors":"Fedor A. Dokshin","doi":"10.1038/s44168-024-00164-8","DOIUrl":"10.1038/s44168-024-00164-8","url":null,"abstract":"Climate advocates look optimistically to policy feedback as a mechanism for locking-in a decarbonization policy trajectory, but little research has examined whether and how climate legislation creates constituencies that could provide future political support. This article focuses on incentive programs supporting investment in solar PV and the potential for policy feedback through participating households. We first develop a framework of feedback potential that considers the volume and partisanship of incentive program beneficiaries and their distribution across electoral districts. We then apply the framework to New York State’s solar PV incentive program, which enabled over 140,000 households to install solar PV. We find that the number of solar PV incentive beneficiaries is positively associated with Republican vote share, suggesting potential for a strong pro-solar constituency in the pivotal, Republican-led districts. Within electoral districts, however, beneficiaries skew Democratic, raising questions about the direction of policy feedback. The results carry implications for the kind of politics that incentives in the Inflation Reduction Act may set in motion in the coming years.","PeriodicalId":186004,"journal":{"name":"npj Climate Action","volume":" ","pages":"1-9"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2024-10-07","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC11458480/pdf/","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"142396891","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"OA","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2024-10-05DOI: 10.1038/s44168-024-00171-9
Christel W. van Eck, Lydia Messling, Katharine Hayhoe
We argue that Büntgen’s (2024) claim that climate science must be separated from activism is fundamentally flawed. Activism does not inherently lead to biased science and striving for value-free science is both unattainable and undesirable. Instead, we advocate for redefining the boundaries of acceptable influence of values in scientific communication and offer practical strategies to move beyond the misleading myth of neutrality.
{"title":"Challenging the neutrality myth in climate science and activism","authors":"Christel W. van Eck, Lydia Messling, Katharine Hayhoe","doi":"10.1038/s44168-024-00171-9","DOIUrl":"10.1038/s44168-024-00171-9","url":null,"abstract":"We argue that Büntgen’s (2024) claim that climate science must be separated from activism is fundamentally flawed. Activism does not inherently lead to biased science and striving for value-free science is both unattainable and undesirable. Instead, we advocate for redefining the boundaries of acceptable influence of values in scientific communication and offer practical strategies to move beyond the misleading myth of neutrality.","PeriodicalId":186004,"journal":{"name":"npj Climate Action","volume":" ","pages":"1-3"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2024-10-05","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://www.nature.com/articles/s44168-024-00171-9.pdf","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"142377227","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"OA","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2024-09-30DOI: 10.1038/s44168-024-00160-y
Yves Steinebach, Markus Hinterleitner, Christoph Knill, Xavier Fernández-i-Marín
Various databases have been developed to track national climate policy efforts. These datasets facilitate comparisons across countries regarding policy activity, instrument choice, and policy effectiveness. This article evaluates these datasets to see whether they converge in their observations about climate policy development. Our findings reveal that all datasets agree at the aggregate level in that they show that ever-more climate policies are being adopted. However, they diverge significantly when scrutinizing more nuanced elements like policy instrument types and their stringency. The main contributions of our review are to highlight what research endeavors are already possible with existing datasets and to identify the gaps that still remain. We also provide concrete suggestions on how to enhance the existing datasets, making them more useful for social science research on climate policy. The article provides the most comprehensive and up-to-date source for scholars and practitioners interested in the comparative analysis of governmental climate policy efforts.
{"title":"A review of national climate policies via existing databases","authors":"Yves Steinebach, Markus Hinterleitner, Christoph Knill, Xavier Fernández-i-Marín","doi":"10.1038/s44168-024-00160-y","DOIUrl":"10.1038/s44168-024-00160-y","url":null,"abstract":"Various databases have been developed to track national climate policy efforts. These datasets facilitate comparisons across countries regarding policy activity, instrument choice, and policy effectiveness. This article evaluates these datasets to see whether they converge in their observations about climate policy development. Our findings reveal that all datasets agree at the aggregate level in that they show that ever-more climate policies are being adopted. However, they diverge significantly when scrutinizing more nuanced elements like policy instrument types and their stringency. The main contributions of our review are to highlight what research endeavors are already possible with existing datasets and to identify the gaps that still remain. We also provide concrete suggestions on how to enhance the existing datasets, making them more useful for social science research on climate policy. The article provides the most comprehensive and up-to-date source for scholars and practitioners interested in the comparative analysis of governmental climate policy efforts.","PeriodicalId":186004,"journal":{"name":"npj Climate Action","volume":" ","pages":"1-9"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2024-09-30","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://www.nature.com/articles/s44168-024-00160-y.pdf","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"142329449","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"OA","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
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