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Climate change awareness: Empirical evidence for the European Union

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  • Donatella Baiardi
  • Claudio Morana

Abstract

In this paper, we assess public attitudes on climate change in Europe over the last decade. Using aggregate Â…gures from the Special Eurobarometer surveys on Climate Change, we Â…nd that environmental concern is directly related to per capita income, social trust, secondary education, the physical distress associated with hot weather, media coverage, the share of young people in the total population, and monetary losses caused by extreme weather episodes. It is also inversely related to greenhouse gas emissions, relative power position of right-wing parties in government and tertiary education. Moreover, we find a signiÂ…cant, opposite impact for two dummies for years 2017 and 2019, which we respectively associate with the effects of Donald TrumpÂ’s denial campaigns and the U.S. Paris Agreement withdrawal announcement, and Greta ThunbergÂ’s environmental activism.

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  • Donatella Baiardi & Claudio Morana, 2020. "Climate change awareness: Empirical evidence for the European Union," Working Papers 426, University of Milano-Bicocca, Department of Economics, revised Feb 2021.
    • Handle: RePEc:mib:wpaper:426
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    Cited by:

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    3. Busato, Francesco & Chiarini, Bruno & Cisco, Gianluigi & Ferrara, Maria, 2021. "Greta Thunberg effect and Business Cycle Dynamics: A DSGE model," MPRA Paper 110141, University Library of Munich, Germany.
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    7. Vance, C. & Sweeney, J. & Murphy, F., 2022. "Space, time, and sustainability: The status and future of life cycle assessment frameworks for novel biorefinery systems," Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews, Elsevier, vol. 159(C).
    8. Paola D'Orazio, 2022. "Mapping the emergence and diffusion of climate-related financial policies: Evidence from a cluster analysis on G20 countries," International Economics, CEPII research center, issue 169, pages 135-147.
    9. Cristina Andreea NICOLAE & Mihai-Ioan ROȘCA, 2021. "Is Climate Change More Serious than International Terrorism? Evidence from European Countries," Journal of Emerging Trends in Marketing and Management, The Bucharest University of Economic Studies, vol. 1(1), pages 22-30, August.
    10. Donatella Baiardi, 2021. "What do you think about climate change?," Working Paper series 21-16, Rimini Centre for Economic Analysis.
    11. Xu, Deyi & Sheraz, Muhammad & Hassan, Arshad & Sinha, Avik & Ullah, Saif, 2022. "Financial development, renewable energy and CO2 emission in G7 countries: New evidence from non-linear and asymmetric analysis," Energy Economics, Elsevier, vol. 109(C).
    12. Neil R. Ericsson & Mohammed H. I. Dore & Hassan Butt, 2022. "Detecting and Quantifying Structural Breaks in Climate," Econometrics, MDPI, vol. 10(4), pages 1-27, November.
    13. Xu, Yongan & Duong, Duy & Xu, Hualong, 2023. "Attention! Predicting crude oil prices from the perspective of extreme weather," Finance Research Letters, Elsevier, vol. 57(C).
    14. Donatella Baiardi, 2021. "What do you think about climate change?," Working Papers 477, University of Milano-Bicocca, Department of Economics, revised Aug 2021.
    15. Alessi, Lucia & Battiston, Stefano & Kvedaras, Virmantas, 2021. "Over with carbon? Investors' reaction to the Paris Agreement and the US withdrawal," Working Papers 2021-12, Joint Research Centre, European Commission.
    16. Luzzati, Tommaso & Tucci, Ilaria & Guarnieri, Pietro, 2022. "Information overload and environmental degradation: Learning from H.A. Simon and W. Wenders," Ecological Economics, Elsevier, vol. 202(C).
    17. Pang, Lidong & Zhu, Meng Nan & Yu, Haiyan, 2022. "Is green finance really a blessing for green technology and carbon efficiency?," Energy Economics, Elsevier, vol. 114(C).
    18. Luan Santos & Karl Steininger & Marcelle Candido Cordeiro & Johanna Vogel, 2022. "Current Status and Future Perspectives of Carbon Pricing Research in Austria," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 14(15), pages 1-28, August.
    19. Manveer Kaur Mangat & Erhard Reschenhofer, 2020. "Frequency-Domain Evidence for Climate Change," Econometrics, MDPI, vol. 8(3), pages 1-15, July.
    20. Hara Moshou & Hara Drinia, 2023. "Climate Change Education and Preparedness of Future Teachers—A Review: The Case of Greece," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 15(2), pages 1-13, January.
    21. L. Ende & M.-A. Reinhard & L. Göritz, 2023. "Detecting Greenwashing! The Influence of Product Colour and Product Price on Consumers’ Detection Accuracy of Faked Bio-fashion," Journal of Consumer Policy, Springer, vol. 46(2), pages 155-189, June.

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    More about this item

    Keywords

    climate change; environmental attitudes/concern; mitigation policy; EU;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • Q50 - Agricultural and Natural Resource Economics; Environmental and Ecological Economics - - Environmental Economics - - - General
    • Q54 - Agricultural and Natural Resource Economics; Environmental and Ecological Economics - - Environmental Economics - - - Climate; Natural Disasters and their Management; Global Warming
    • Q58 - Agricultural and Natural Resource Economics; Environmental and Ecological Economics - - Environmental Economics - - - Environmental Economics: Government Policy

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