Extreme weather events are becoming more frequent and intense due to climate change. Yet, little is known about the relationship between exposure to extreme events, subjective attribution of these events to climate change, and climate policy support, especially in the Global South. Combining large-scale natural and social science data from 68 countries (N = 71,922), we develop a measure of exposed population to extreme weather events and investigate whether exposure to extreme weather and subjective attribution of extreme weather to climate change predict climate policy support. We fnd that most people support climate policies and link extreme weather events to climate change. Subjective attribution of extreme weather was positively associated with policy support for fve widely discussed climate policies. However, exposure to most types of extreme weather event did not predict policy support. Overall, these results suggest that subjective attribution could facilitate climate policy support.

Extreme weather event attribution predicts climate policy support across the world

Alfano, Mark;Cagnoli, Federica;Di Stefano, Lucia;Saiani, Paolo Parra;
2025-01-01

Abstract

Extreme weather events are becoming more frequent and intense due to climate change. Yet, little is known about the relationship between exposure to extreme events, subjective attribution of these events to climate change, and climate policy support, especially in the Global South. Combining large-scale natural and social science data from 68 countries (N = 71,922), we develop a measure of exposed population to extreme weather events and investigate whether exposure to extreme weather and subjective attribution of extreme weather to climate change predict climate policy support. We fnd that most people support climate policies and link extreme weather events to climate change. Subjective attribution of extreme weather was positively associated with policy support for fve widely discussed climate policies. However, exposure to most types of extreme weather event did not predict policy support. Overall, these results suggest that subjective attribution could facilitate climate policy support.
File in questo prodotto:
File Dimensione Formato  
s41558-025-02372-4_compressed (1).pdf

accesso aperto

Tipologia: Documento in versione editoriale
Dimensione 10.39 MB
Formato Adobe PDF
10.39 MB Adobe PDF Visualizza/Apri

I documenti in IRIS sono protetti da copyright e tutti i diritti sono riservati, salvo diversa indicazione.

Utilizza questo identificativo per citare o creare un link a questo documento: https://hdl.handle.net/11567/1256299
Citazioni
  • ???jsp.display-item.citation.pmc??? ND
  • Scopus ND
  • ???jsp.display-item.citation.isi??? 4
social impact