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Majority support for global redistributive and climate policies
Adrien Fabre1,2, Thomas Douenne3, Linus Mattauch4,5,6
1Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique, Paris, France. adrien.fabre@cnrs.fr.
Nature Human Behaviour
|June 5, 2025
Summary
Majorities in 20 countries support global climate policies like the Global Climate Scheme (GCS), a carbon price funding cash transfers. This support is sincere, even when respondents understand personal costs, indicating genuine public willingness for climate action and redistribution.
Area of Science:
- Environmental Policy
- Public Opinion
- Climate Economics
Background:
- Public support for climate mitigation and global redistribution is crucial for policy implementation.
- Despite stated support, the actual public acceptance and sincerity of these policies remain debated.
- Understanding public willingness to accept costs for global climate action is essential.
Purpose of the Study:
- To document majority support for global redistribution and climate mitigation policies.
- To test hypotheses explaining the gap between stated support and public debate on the Global Climate Scheme (GCS).
- To assess the sincerity of public support for the GCS and similar globally redistributive policies.
Main Methods:
- Large-scale surveys of 40,680 respondents across 20 countries.
- Targeted surveys in the USA, France, Germany, Spain, and the UK (8,000 respondents).
- Experimental testing to evaluate the sincerity of support and policy preferences.
Main Results:
- Strong majority support (three-quarters of Europeans, half of Americans) for the Global Climate Scheme (GCS), a global carbon price.
- Support for the GCS is sincere and increases preference for political programs including it, even with perceived personal costs.
- Widespread support was also found for other globally redistributive policies, including foreign aid and wealth taxes for low-income countries.
Conclusions:
- Majorities genuinely support global climate and redistributive policies, even in wealthy nations.
- Public opinion data indicates a strong mandate for international cooperation on climate change and economic equity.
- Findings challenge assumptions about public opposition to costly global policies and highlight potential for political mobilization.
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