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Abstract

There is overwhelming consensus about the science of climate change. Climate politics, however, remains volatile, driven by perceptions of injustice, which motivate policy resistance and undermine policy legitimacy. We identify three types of injustice. The first pertains to the uneven exposure to climate change impacts across countries and communities within a country. Socially, politically, and economically disadvantaged communities that have contributed the least to the climate crisis tend to be affected the most. To address climate change and its impacts, countries and subnational units have enacted a range of policies. But even carefully designed mitigation and adaptation policies distribute costs (the second justice dimension) and benefits (the third justice dimension) unevenly across sectors and communities, often reproducing existing inequalities. Climate justice requires paying careful attention to who bears the costs and who gets the benefits of both climate inaction and action. Expected final online publication date for the Annual Review of Political Science, Volume 25 is May 2022. Please see http://www.annualreviews.org/page/journal/pubdates for revised estimates.

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... Our paper explores the EV subsidy design preferences of the public in relation to country-specific distributional concerns. By doing so, this paper responds to the emerging climate policy literature that has suggested that the key impediments to climate progress are not concerns about free-riding by other countries (Ostrom, 2010) but domestic distributional issues about which industries win and which lose in the process of decarbonizing the economy (Newell and Mulvaney, 2013;Aklin and Mildenberger, 2020;Dolsak and Prakash, 2022). ...
... Our findings are surprising given the recent debate emphasizing domestic distributional issues as key barriers to climate policy (Newell and Mulvaney, 2013;Aklin and Mildenberger, 2020;Dolsak and Prakash, 2022). First, we find that both American and Japanese respondents prefer policies that are universalistic in nature (i.e., no eligibility restrictions) to progressively targeted subsidies that favor the low-income households and non-luxury cars or selective subsidies that favor domestic firms. ...
... Our findings indicate that citizens are not so interested in the distributional aspects of the transition from ICEs to EVs. This is surprising given the recent debate on distributional conflict impeding climate progress (Aklin and Mildenberger, 2020;Dolsak and Prakash, 2022), with justice groups emphasizing equity issues in the transition to a decarbonized economy via EVs or rooftop solar panels and noting that decarbonization gains tend to benefit wealthy households (Sunter et al., 2019;Henderson, 2020). Our findings suggest that the EV policy discourse centering on distributional politics is not reflected in public opinion. ...
Article
This paper explores whether perceptions about distributive inequity shape public support for energy transition policies. The introduction of electric vehicles (EVs) is an important policy priority for the decarbonization of road transportation. Because high sticker prices restrict EV sales, governments offer consumers EV subsidies. However, some are concerned that subsidies may favor certain groups and industries. Using a conjoint experiment, we examine the public preference for EV subsidies in the U.S. and Japan.,. In the U.S., there is a concern that EV subsidies help the high-income (i.e., individual-focused concerns), while the prevailing concern in Japan is whether they favor foreign companies which are the first movers in the EV industry (i.e., industry-focused concerns). We embed a vignette experiment within the conjoint experiment to prime the respondents with individual- and industry-focused distributional concerns. In both countries, regardless of the priming they received, our respondents favor universalistic subsidies that are inclusive of the high-income and luxury/foreign cars to subsidies that are more progressively targeted (i.e., exclusive of the rich and luxury cars) or favoring domestic firms. As such, recent EV policy discourse centering on distributional politics does not appear to reflect public opinion.
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Article
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... Climate disruptions whether by flooding, urban heat islands, wildfires or hurricanes are going to impose disproportionate costs on vulnerable populations who also have fewer resources to adapt to them. Hence, justice is a key pillar of climate policy [42]. We hypothesize: ...
... However, the sectoral composition of the workforce matters: the share of workers outside the manufacturing and service industry (agriculture, forestry, fishing and hunting, and mining) are associated with a significant but negative effect on climate votes. This provides additional support for the argument that climate policy costs tend to be concentrated on specific sectors [42,48]. This is where the discussion on "just transition" [49][50][51] becomes important. ...
Article
Full-text available
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... The reason is that while decarbonization creates a global public good (although with positive local spillovers such as reduced air pollution), it imposes costs on specific sectors and communities [1]. This is probably why decarbonization policies are sometimes viewed to be inequitable as revealed in opposition to carbon taxes and cap and trade policies, as well as rural opposition to coal and wind farms [2]. ...
... Two interrelated political challenges, global free riding [31] and domestic distributional conflicts [1,2]., impede decarbonization policies. The benefits of decarbonization have features of global public good, although with local spillovers. ...
Article
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... Taking justice into account means considering a broad range of racial, gender, and class-based inequalities in the distribution of environmental harms and amenities (Bullard, 2008;Pellow, 2017). Climate justice has intellectual roots in EJ and highlights how policy and market (in)action around issues of climate invariably distribute environmental and economic costs and benefits, often in ways that reproduce existing economic, political, and social inequalities (Dolšak & Prakash, 2021;Pellow & Brulle, 2005). In both the United States and cross-nationally, the costs of climate change disproportionately fall on marginalized populations. ...
Article
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... Historically the lack of progress on climate policy was largely attributed to global free riding. Increasingly, scholars recognize the important role of domestic distributional conflicts in impeding decarbonization [2][3][4][5], and alternatively, the significance of domestic political incentives for stimulating transnational climate initiatives [6,7]. ...
Article
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... To balance litigation with adaptation policies, governments must allocate all available resources; prioritize equity, equality, and non-discrimination in their climate actions; provide fair access to education, technology, and innovation; and ensure that the public is well-informed and involved in sustainable development and climate policy decisions [129][130][131][132]. The key aspects of such an approach include the following: individual and collective action and community-led initiatives; people's empowerment and participation in climate decision-making; integrating cultural values and social norms into sustainable solutions; and emphasizing the role of governments, corporations, and individuals in reducing GHG emissions and fostering shared responsibility [133][134][135]. ...
Article
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Climate change has been considered a critical challenge that transcends traditional notions of security, demanding a shift in perspective toward environmental sustainability. Historically, security has been viewed as an inviolable boundary, shaped significantly by the aftermath of World War II, when the international community prioritized peace, territorial integrity, and political independence. However, humanity now faces unprecedented threats that cannot be addressed through rigid or outdated definitions of security. Climate change impacts the entire planet, affecting both living and non-living organisms, and has arisen primarily from anthropogenic activities over the past two centuries. Consequently, solutions must originate from within human societies, emphasizing sustainability alongside action. Despite extensive discourse, meaningful progress remains limited. This paper, drawing on scientific data about climate change’s far-reaching consequences, aims to highlight that climate change, despite theoretical and practical challenges, has the potential to supplant traditional State-centered security as the Grundnorm of international law, serving as the critical threshold that demands a comprehensive reform and reimagining of the international legal framework. It concludes that climate change’s new normativity represents opportunities to reform law and order to ensure life and sustainability.
... Instead, counter climate change organizations are most likely to develop in countries with more extensive policies and structures oriented toward protecting the environment. These findings have broad implications for understanding ongoing resistance to climate change discourse and policies [17], and they speak to debates about movements that attack the legitimacy of the international liberal institutions [5,11,18,19]. ...
Article
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More than two decades of social scientific research has identified the growing network of corporations, think tanks, nonprofits, and advocacy organizations that aim to obstruct climate change action within the United States. Conventional arguments emphasize the role of economic self-interest (e.g., wealthy and powerful corporations) in shaping the rise of an organized “counter climate change movement” that seeks to discredit evidence about anthropogenic climate change and derail solutions to address the problem. In this paper, we track the growth of counter climate change organizations around the world and emphasize the role of reactionary cultural dynamics in driving their emergence. As climate change discourse is infused in more areas throughout society, climate change issues become more salient in the public sphere, generating adversarial grievances, identities, and mobilization among oppositional groups. Drawing on panel logistic regression models for 162–164 countries from 1990 to 2018, we find that counter climate change organizations are most likely to develop in countries with more extensive state policies and structures oriented toward protecting the natural environment, net of a variety of factors that account for a country’s economic interests or its overall capacity to produce domestic associations.
... Drawing upon research in environmental justice that identifies communities and demographic groups that lack access to climate services or climate information (Dolšak and Prakash, 2022;Tripati et al., 2024), the evaluator could propose an evaluation instrument to illuminate how climate information reaches and is used by underserved groups. As discussed in Chapter 4, a mapping of the network along which the NCA is shared can identify key nodes; the persons at those nodes are likely to have information about the audiences they are trying to reach and the limitations they encounter in doing so. ...
... Illconsidered climate policies can worsen the dispropor tionate burden on such groups 4 . Policy responses to climate change must therefore recognize the unequal distribution of causal respon sibility, impacts and coping capacities across different groups and place emphasis on promoting fair and equitable outcomes 5,6 . Against this backdrop, climate justice has become a prominent frame in climate change messaging and advocacy. ...
Article
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Climate justice is increasingly prominent in climate change communication and advocacy but little is known about public understanding of the concept or how widely it resonates with different groups. In our global survey of 5,627 adults in 11 countries spanning the global north and south, most participants (66.2%) had never heard of climate justice. Nonetheless, endorsement of climate justice beliefs was widespread (for example, acknowledging the disproportionate impact of climate change on poor people and the underpinning roles of capitalism and colonialism in the climate crisis). Climate justice beliefs were also associated with various indices of climate action and policy support. These associations tended to be stronger in countries with high GHG emissions and where social inequality is also more politically salient. The results highlight the value of climate justice as a motive for climate action across diverse geographical contexts.
... Advocates of CJ addressed the unequal exposure to the consequences of climate change, for instance, the much higher death rates caused by heat waves among already vulnerable societal groups 10 . Thus, by pointing out such injustices and their causes, CJ is closely linked to the notion of environmental justice 11 , which entered policy debates with movements addressing the disproportional exposure of minority communities to environmental risks. In particular, in the U.S., environmental justice (EJ) issues have been fiercely debated since the 1980s. ...
Article
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Climate justice issues have been propelled onto political agendas by the recent wave of climate activism, which emphasizes the need for more equitable development. Although a substantial body of research identifies injustices related to climate change, policy research has yet to adequately address this topic. This contribution aims to bridge this gap by advocating for a stronger connection between climate justice and policy analysis. It reviews existing literature, highlighting key focal points in the research, and identifies avenues for future study. The review underscores the need for a more thorough examination of the intersection between policy measures and climate justice.
... Few issues are as connected to inequality as climate change. While the inter-linkage between climate change and international inequality has been on full display for a long-time, as negotiations on climate cooperation have been hampered by the strong international inequalities and the related free-rider problem for decades (Aklin andMildenberger 2020, Taconet et al 2020), two other forms of inequality have moved to the center of scholarly attention more recently: generational as well as economic inequalities (Gardiner 2006, Dolšak andPrakash 2022). Moreover, these two types of inequality have already found their way from the scholarly ivory tower to the streets: movements, such as Fridays for Future or Extinction Rebellion, are examples of the generational conflict underlying climate change-an inequality that relates to the future impacts of climate change. ...
Article
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Climate change and most climate policies affect and reinforce different forms of inequalities. For instance, climate change policies that aim to change consumer behavior by increasing the price tag of goods and services that cause carbon emissions often carry a disproportionately higher burden (in terms of financial cost) to those with lower incomes. They can thereby either exacerbate existing income inequalities or contribute to generating new ones. Meanwhile, refraining from engaging with climate mitigation policies will incur other detrimental societal costs: the financial burden and the harmful consequences of climate change that future generations will have to bear if nothing is done. In this paper, we examine how the immediate economic inequality citizens face from climate mitigation policies (regarding carbon taxation) weighs against the long-term generational inequalities future generations will experience. We study how both types of inequality relate to policy support for climate change mitigation policies in the context of Germany. The German case is of special interest because a recent court ruling of the Federal Constitutional Court allows us to test whether making people aware of a new legal reality can bridge the gap between the economic and generational inequality. Our findings using a between-subjects survey experiment fielded among German citizens (N = 6,319) in 2022 show that immediate economic concerns trump future generational concerns, generally making citizens less supportive of the policy. This negative support is however somewhat mitigated by the supportive signal from the court ruling.
... L&D proposals emphasize the uneven distribution of climate burdens and the need for financial redistribution from carbon-intensive economies to countries that have contributed the least but still experience significant climate change impacts. Distributive approaches have richly informed environmental justice activism, litigation, and policy broadly (Schlosberg & Collins, 2014) and climate justice specifically (Bali Principles of Climate Change, 2002;Boyd et al., 2017;Dolsˇak & Prakash, 2023;Ensor et al., 2018). Such approaches argue that injustice must be rectified through actions that either (1) reduce uneven distribution so no single population is unduly exposed to environmental burdens or (2) reduce the total environmental impact that any population experiences (Álvarez & Coolsaet, 2020). ...
... Climate justice, the unequal distribution of benefits and costs of both climate action and inaction (Shue 2014;Schlosberg and Collins 2014;Newell et al. 2021;Dolšak and Prakash 2022) is now a critical aspect of climate policy discussion. ...
... Moreover, a commitment to 1.5°C allowed the climate movement to deploy a justice-based framing of the issue 14 , which is especially likely to resonate with participants and draw them into mobilization 15 . Moreover, it connects with broader justice concerns that have emerged around race and gender. ...
Article
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Evidence is mounting that the 1.5 °C goal of the Paris Agreement is unrealistic. But, contrary to many in the scientific community, major NGOs have remained steadfast in their support for this target. We argue that this is because “unrealistic” or aspirational targets can serve important political objectives, including becoming focal points for coalition-building and broad-based mobilization and allowing for effective naming and shaming.
... Rather than a singular definition a variety of ways of understanding what it is exist. This is a point made repeatedly in reviews and discussions of climate justice (Preston et al., 2014;Aitken et al., 2016;Popke et al., 2016;Galgóczi and Algüç, 2021;Newell et al., 2021;Dolšak and Prakash, 2022). In the absence of an agreed understanding Preston et al. (2014: 3) propose a working definition: ...
Technical Report
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This report provides a baseline review of Irish environmental and climate policy for the National Women’s Council (NWC) and Community Work Ireland (CWI) Feminist Communities for Climate Justice project (FCCJ) from the perspective of intersectional feminist climate justice
... Rather than a singular definition a variety of ways of understanding what it is exist. This is a point made repeatedly in reviews and discussions of climate justice (Preston et al., 2014;Aitken et al., 2016;Popke et al., 2016;Galgóczi and Algüç, 2021;Newell et al., 2021;Dolšak and Prakash, 2022). In the absence of an agreed understanding Preston et al. (2014: 3) propose a working definition: ...
... Several causes of climate injustice include uneven exposure to the climate crisis and the unequal distribution of costs and benefits in efforts to address the impacts of climate change [6]. Meanwhile, one focus of climate justice relates to the principle of "polluter pays" or who should bear responsibility for climate mitigation and adaptation efforts [7]. ...
Article
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Climate injustice has become a prominent issue following the Paris Agreement, where emissions generated by developed countries burden local communities in developing countries. Consequently, one of the efforts to address climate injustice for communities in the Global South is through climate litigation processes. The process itself is a challenging one since the litigants need support legally and politically to ensure it has proceeded. Here, non-governmental organisation’s (NGO) engagement is the most feasible support that local communities can access. This article analyzes the dynamics of climate justice attempts through a unique case study: climate litigation between residents of Pulau Pari, a small island located in the Java Sea, Indonesia, and the cement giant Holcim-LaFarge in Switzerland. This climate litigation is advocated by three collaborating NGOs: HEKS (Switzerland), ECCHR (Germany), and WALHI (Indonesia). Using a qualitative method, we analyze the role of NGO advocacy in the litigation process using the advocacy function concept by Joseph Szarka; issue framing, construction and dissemination of knowledge, responsibility attribution, political lobbying, public mobilization and agenda setting. We argue that the advocacy support of the three related NGOs amplified the climate litigation process beyond legal proceedings. The strategy of advocating climate litigation is an innovative way to create wider recognition from the international community and push adaptation to the struggle of the local community.
... Children and youth, women's groups, local communities, and Indigenous Peoples, among others, are taking a prominent role in bringing these cases and driving climate change governance reform around the world. This "climate justice movement" seeks to extend the principles of human rights and environmental justice by arguing that future generations have a birthright to a safe climate capable of sustaining genuine human development on a healthy and resilient planet (36). ...
Article
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Human development has ushered in an era of converging crises: climate change, ecological destruction, disease, pollution, and socioeconomic inequality. This review synthesizes the breadth of these interwoven emergencies and underscores the urgent need for comprehensive, integrated action. Propelled by imperialism, extractive capitalism, and a surging population, we are speeding past Earth's material limits, destroying critical ecosystems, and triggering irreversible changes in biophysical systems that underpin the Holocene climatic stability which fostered human civilization. The consequences of these actions are disproportionately borne by vulnerable populations, further entrenching global inequities. Marine and terrestrial biomes face critical tipping points, while escalating challenges to food and water access foreshadow a bleak outlook for global security. Against this backdrop of Earth at risk, we call for a global response centered on urgent decarbonization, fostering reciprocity with nature, and implementing regenerative practices in natural resource management. We call for the elimination of detrimental subsidies, promotion of equitable human development, and transformative financial support for lower income nations. A critical paradigm shift must occur that replaces exploitative, wealth-oriented capitalism with an economic model that prioritizes sustainability, resilience, and justice. We advocate a global cultural shift that elevates kinship with nature and communal well-being, underpinned by the recognition of Earth’s finite resources and the interconnectedness of its inhabitants. The imperative is clear: to navigate away from this precipice, we must collectively harness political will, economic resources, and societal values to steer toward a future where human progress does not come at the cost of ecological integrity and social equity.
... There is an emphasis on including members of coastal communities, indigenous communities, marine industries, and other invested people in the foresighting process; information provided by these groups can shape the focal questions and spatio-temporal scales of prediction efforts (Record et al. 2022). Broad inclusion is particularly important given the emerging knowledge on climate justice-that those most affected by anthropogenically driven changes are often those least responsible (Dolšak and Prakash 2022;Whyte 2019). This scenario has often played out through surprising events like floods, storms, or wildfires; an equity-centered foresighting approach could address the questions of who is surprised and why and possibly provide solutions that address climate injustices. ...
... Achieving such a significant reduction in emissions will require major shifts in the structure of the European economy. Nevertheless, the green transition may disproportionately impact individuals and countries, potentially exacerbating existing inequalities (Carley & Konisky, 2020;Crespy & Munta, 2023;Fredriksson & Zachmann, 2021) and giving rise to new distributive conflicts between winners and losers, both within and between countries (Aklin & Mildenberger, 2020;Beckfield & Evrard, 2023;Dolšak & Prakash, 2022). The Yellow Vest movement that began in France in 2018 against a carbon tax increase (Tatham & Peters, 2023) and Poland's opposition -as the largest hard coal producer in the EU -to committing to ambitious EU climate goals (Biedenkopf, 2021) serve as illustrative examples of the rising conflict over the green transition in Europe. ...
Article
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In the fight against climate change, the European Union has developed a new growth strategy to transform Europe into the first climate-neutral continent by 2050. To support EU member states in their transition towards greener economies, climate change mitigation policies are being implemented at the EU-level. However, such policies can be designed in different ways, and gaining citizens’ support is crucial for the political feasibility of the European green transition. Drawing on data from an original conjoint experiment conducted in Germany (N = 5,796), this article investigates how policy design shapes public support for EU climate change mitigation. To this end, the study theoretically and empirically distinguishes four policy dimensions that address the distributive politics of the European green transition: sectoral scope, social spending, financing structure and cross-country distribution. The results confirm that all four policy dimensions significantly impact public support. Specifically, the study reveals that support is greatest for EU policy packages that target financial support at the renewable energy sector, include social investment policies, are financed by increasing taxes on the rich, and distribute resources across EU member states based on population size. Furthermore, citizens’ sensitivity to the policy design varies slightly by income position, left-right ideology and climate attitudes.
... The urgently required changes in human activity to tackle climate change and stay below 1.5 °C come with many justice implications 1 . This has led to vivid public and scientific debates on the design of just transitions [2][3][4] , differentiated impacts and responsibilities 5,6 . ...
Article
Climate change and decarbonization raise complex justice questions that researchers and policymakers must address. The distributions of greenhouse gas emissions rights and mitigation efforts have dominated justice discourses within scenario research, an integrative element of the IPCC. However, the space of justice considerations is much larger. At present, there is no consistent approach to comprehensively incorporate and examine justice considerations. Here we propose a conceptual framework grounded in philosophical theory for this purpose. We apply this framework to climate mitigation scenarios literature as proof of concept, enabling a more holistic and multidimensional investigation of justice. We identify areas of future research, including new metrics of service provisioning essential for human well-being.
... Ill-considered climate change mitigation policies can further place a disproportionately heavy burden on people who are poor and marginalised 4 . A credible response to the climate crisis must therefore recognise the unequal distribution of causal responsibility, impacts, and coping capacities across different groups, and place emphasis on promoting fair and equitable outcomes 5,6 . ...
Preprint
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Contemporary climate change advocacy, science, and policymaking widely incorporate justice framing, but little is known about public understanding of climate justice and the degree to which justice-related beliefs function as a motivation for climate action and policy support. We assessed climate justice awareness among adults in 11 countries spanning the Global North and South (N = 5,627). Most participants (66.2%) had never heard of climate justice. Endorsement of common climate justice-related beliefs was widespread (e.g., acknowledging the need to give voice to frontline communities, and the underpinning role of colonialism and capitalism in the climate crisis). Climate justice beliefs were associated with various indices of climate action and policy support. These associations tended to be stronger in high emitting countries and where social inequality is a more politically salient topic. The results highlight a risk that less privileged groups, often the most affected, are left out of climate justice discourse.
... Blondeel, Colgan, and Van de Graaf (2019) argued that AFFN have been most successful when they are aimed at reducing environmentally harmful fossil fuel subsidies because this is linked to the salient problem of fiscal stability. Actors sometimes disagree on finding a common norm campaign because the impact of diverse climate policies often have a negative effect on the most vulnerable communities (Dolšak and Prakash 2022). ...
Article
To confront the climate crisis, we need political change involving a dramatic shift in domestic and transnational norms. Norm models should be recognized as one of the theoretical tools within the panoply of approaches to examine and address climate change. The most promising norm campaigns underway are those that target fossil fuel companies and government policies that support them (e.g., subsidies).
... Scholars and experts have also observed that climate change's impacts will be distributed unequally across countries, sectors, and communities (Dolšak & Prakash, 2022). Ten percent of the world's population living adjacent to oceans and major estuaries will be especially vulnerable to rising ocean levels. ...
Article
The voluntary and civil society sector plays important roles in climate policy, mitigation and adaptation, especially given the pervasive government and market failures in this policy domain. Does the quality and quantity of scholarship published in nonprofit-focused journals reflect the topic’s importance? This article reviews voluntary sector scholarship on climate issues and serves to introduce Nonprofit and Voluntary Sector Quarterly’s first organized collection of research on the voluntary sector and climate change. We begin by summarizing and commenting on the findings of a modified systematic literature review of past research on this subject. We then introduce the other five articles published in this symposium, place them in the context of past literature, and discuss their potential contributions to helping researchers expand the conversation and the knowledge on this topic in future work. Finally, we outline ideas and issues for future research.
... As voters and consumers, individuals can contribute to climate mitigation 30 . Individuals could place climate protection on top of their electoral priorities and support candidates with explicit proclimate agendas 31 . ...
Article
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The livestock sector accounts for 14.5% of global greenhouse emissions. Using an online survey experiment (n = 1200) in Italy, we examine respondents’ willingness to support a public petition for a meat tax sponsored by a nongovernmental organization (NGO) after priming them with information on the environmental impact of meat and an embedded moral message. Aiming to test whether institutional authority enhances the appeal of the moral message, we include Pope Francis (a religious authority) and a Professor of Philosophy (a secular authority) as the treatment frames along with a no-messenger (control) frame. Overall, support for meat tax is not significant in any of the treatment frames. However, highly religious individuals (those that practice and intensely believe in religion) across denominations and frames are more supportive of the meat tax. Moreover, we also find that there is a slight backlash among highly religious individuals when they receive the message with the Pope as messenger.
... Utility-scale renewable facilities may face local opposition when they have negative impacts on local communities [19,20]. This study focuses on the disruptive impact of utility-scale solar farms on the surrounding landscape [21,22]. ...
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While the number of utility-scale solar farms in South Korea has increased in the past decade, more than half of county governments have adopted setback restrictions on solar farms. These restrictions reduce available lands for the siting of solar farms, undermining national-level decarbonization outcomes. This study shows that rural opposition to landscape change from solar farms was a key driver for South Korean county governments to adopt the restriction. The event history analysis across 225 counties from 2012 to 2020 shows that rural counties with a higher chance of landscape change from solar farms, measured with solar farm density, faced a higher risk of adopting the restriction. Interview research further suggests that rural opposition to landscape change has motivated government officials to adopt the setback restriction on solar farms. The finding of this study implies that a national renewable energy development may confront local policy barriers if the government fails to mitigate the negative impacts of renewable facilities on local communities.
... This result might be interpreted in the light of fairness considerations (Drews & van den Bergh, 2016): While a ban on certain technologies such as ICEVs affects everyone regardless of their income or wealth, an increase in the fuel priceas the current energy crisis illustratesis felt much more strongly by low-income households than by wealthy households (Nikodinoska & Schröder, 2016;Wang et al., 2016). At the same time, switching to electric mobility, an option that is frequently discussed as the main alternative to ICEVs (Dolšak & Prakash, 2022), would be more affordable for wealthy households. However, this relationship may not be as prominent for respondents as the direct increase in fuel prices when they are confronted with policy proposals. ...
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Widespread electric vehicle (EV) adoption is crucial for achieving California’s climate goals. The inclusion of marginalized populations in this process is important and will require that they have access to charging infrastructure. Public EV charging stations may help reduce the EV adoption barriers affecting these populations. This study combines public charging station location data with American Community Survey data at the census block group level in California, finding that public charger access is lower in block groups with below-median household incomes and in those with a Black and Hispanic majority populations. These public charger access disparities are more pronounced in areas with a higher proportion of multi-unit housing, where they are critical for EV operation due to a lower likelihood of residential charger access. Controlling for distance to the nearest highway or freeway, multi-unit housing unit rate, and median household income, we find that Black and Hispanic majority block groups are the only race and ethnicity group that is significantly less likely to have access to any public charger in their block groups compared to the rest of the state. The odds of having public charger access for the group is 0.7-times that of the no majority reference group. The access gap is even larger for the publicly-funded charging stations where Black and Hispanic majority block groups are approximately half as likely as the no-majority reference group to have access. Hence directing a larger portion of the funding to underserved communities and further government involvement in filling the public charger access gap can be crucial in achieving widespread and equitable EV adoption.
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The transition to lower-carbon sources of energy will inevitably produce and, in many cases, perpetuate pre-existing sets of winners and losers. The winners are those that will benefit from cleaner sources of energy, reduced emissions from the removal of fossil fuels, and the employment and innovation opportunities that accompany this transition. The losers are those that will bear the burdens, or lack access to the opportunities. Here we review the current state of understanding—based on a rapidly growing body of academic and policy literature—about the potential adverse consequences of the energy transition for specific communities and socio-economic groups on the frontlines of the transition. We review evidence about just transition policies and programmes, primarily from cases in the Global North, and draw conclusions about what insights are still needed to understand the justice and equity dimensions of the transition, and to ensure that no one is left behind.
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Public support for policy instruments is influenced by perceptions of how benefits and costs are distributed across various groups. We examine different carbon tax designs outlining different ways to distribute tax revenues. Using a national online sample of 1,606 U.S. respondents, we examine support for a $20/ton carbon tax that is: (1) Revenue Neutral: revenue is returned to citizens via tax cuts; (2) Compensation‐focused: revenue is directed to helping actors disproportionately hurt by the tax; (3) Mitigation‐focused: revenue funds projects reducing carbon emissions; and (4) Adaptation‐focused: revenue is directed to enhancing community resilience to extreme weather events. We find devoting revenue to mitigation raises overall support for carbon tax by +6.3% versus the control (54.9%) where no information on spending is provided. Other frames raise support in specific subgroups only. Revenue neutrality raises support among lower‐income households (+6.6%) and political independents (+9.4%), while ompensation increases support among lower‐income repondents (+6.1%).
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Background: Asthma disproportionately affects communities of colour in the USA, but the underlying factors for this remain poorly understood. In this study, we assess the role of historical redlining as outlined in security maps created by the Home Owners' Loan Corporation (HOLC), the discriminatory practice of categorising neighbourhoods on the basis of perceived mortgage investment risk, on the burden of asthma in these neighbourhoods. Methods: We did an ecological study of HOLC risk grades and asthma exacerbations in California using the security maps available for the following eight cities: Fresno, Los Angeles, Oakland, Sacramento, San Diego, San Jose, San Francisco, and Stockton. Each census tract was categorised into one of four risk levels (A, B, C, or D) on the basis of the location of population-weighted centroids on security maps, with the worst risk level (D) indicating historical redlining. We obtained census tract-level rates of emergency department visits due to asthma from CalEnviroScreen 3.0. We assessed the relationship between risk grade and log-transformed asthma visit rates between 2011 and 2013 using ordinary least squares regression. We included potential confounding variables from the 2010 Census and CalEnviroScreen 3.0: diesel exhaust particle emissions, PM2·5, and percent of the population living below 2 times the federal poverty level. We also built random intercept and slope models to assess city-level variation in the relationship between redlining and asthma. Findings: In the 1431 census tracts assessed (64 [4·5%] grade A, 241 [16·8%] grade B, 719 [50·2%] grade C, and 407 [28·4%] grade D), the proportion of the population that was non-Hispanic black and Hispanic, the percentage of the population living in poverty, and diesel exhaust particle emissions all significantly increased as security map risk grade worsened (p
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The increasing intensity, duration, and frequency of heat waves due to human-caused climate change puts historically underserved populations in a heightened state of precarity, as studies observe that vulnerable communities—especially those within urban areas in the United States—are disproportionately exposed to extreme heat. Lacking, however, are insights into fundamental questions about the role of historical housing policies in cauterizing current exposure to climate inequities like intra-urban heat. Here, we explore the relationship between “redlining”, or the historical practice of refusing home loans or insurance to whole neighborhoods based on a racially motivated perception of safety for investment, with present-day summertime intra-urban land surface temperature anomalies. Through a spatial analysis of 108 urban areas in the United States, we ask two questions: (1) how do historically redlined neighborhoods relate to current patterns of intra-urban heat? and (2) do these patterns vary by US Census Bureau region? Our results reveal that 94% of studied areas display consistent city-scale patterns of elevated land surface temperatures in formerly redlined areas relative to their non-redlined neighbors by as much as 7 °C. Regionally, Southeast and Western cities display the greatest differences while Midwest cities display the least. Nationally, land surface temperatures in redlined areas are approximately 2.6 °C warmer than in non-redlined areas. While these trends are partly attributable to the relative preponderance of impervious land cover to tree canopy in these areas, which we also examine, other factors may also be driving these differences. This study reveals that historical housing policies may, in fact, be directly responsible for disproportionate exposure to current heat events.
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Climate action has two pillars: mitigation and adaptation. Mitigation faces collective action issues because its costs are focused on specific locations/actors but benefits are global and nonexcludable. Adaptation, in contrast, creates local benefits, and therefore should face fewer collective action issues. However, governance units vary in the types of adaptation policies they adopt. To explain this variation, we suggest conceptualizing adaptation-aspolitics because adaptation speaks to the issues of power, conflicting policy preferences, resource allocation, and administrative tensions. In examining who develops and implements adaptation, we explore whether adaptation is the old wine of disaster management in the new bottle of climate policy, and the tensions between national and local policy making. In exploring what adaptation policies are adopted, we discuss maladaptation and the distinction between hard and soft infrastructure. Finally, we examine why politicians favor visible, hard adaptation over soft adaptation, and how international influences shape local policy. Expected final online publication date for the Annual Review of Environment and Resources Volume 43 is October 17, 2018. Please see http://www.annualreviews.org/page/journal/pubdates for revised estimates.
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This article employs a close reading of documents related to the permitting process for the Dakota Access Pipeline (DAPL) and ensuing legal battle in order to argue that extant regulatory frameworks for environmental decision-making are insufficient to promote environmental justice outcomes. By analyzing the US Army Corps of Engineer's responses to comments made during the public comment phase of the NEPA evaluation of the DAPL, I argue that regulatory frameworks may exacerbate environmental justice concerns by incentivizing decision makers to prioritize justification for their decisions and avoiding legal battles over meaningfully engaging with communities. This finding leads me to call for more engagement with energy democracy's orientation toward community-led processes as a corrective to current regulatory systems. This article expands on extant work in environmental communication by more thoroughly investigating the flaws in extant regulatory frameworks and calling for a perspectival shift in environmental decision-making.
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New goods and expanding product variety are thought to provide enormous welfare gains. New products can influence the pricing of competing products, but often the most important way that new products improve the welfare is through their direct consumption value. The demographic profile of the buyers of new goods suggests those welfare gains are unequally distributed. For supermarket products in the US, expenditures on new goods are disproportionately concentrated among high earners and younger consumers.
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