Climate at what cost? A survey experiment on trade-offs between decarbonization ambitions and socioeconomic costs

Survey research typically suggests strong support for climate and decarbonization policies. These findings contrast with anecdotal and observational evidence suggesting that individuals are sensitive to personal and collective losses incurred from climate policies. To address this, we field an experiment in five Western European countries, where respondents are asked to trade-off personal and collective income losses expected with different decarbonization paths. Our results show that, while respondents support ambitious decarbonization strategies ceteris paribus, this support softens in the face of possible individual and collective income losses associated with a given decarbonization path. Next, we explore the moderating role of income, profession, education, green values, and climate and inflation concerns. The experimental focus on different distributional consequences at different levels of citizen experience contribute to a growing literature focusing on the socioeconomic implications of climate change policies, offering a sobering look at the actual level of political support these policies enjoy in western Europe, suggesting that existing compensation policies are likely insufficient.