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How much carbon offsetting and where? Implications of efficiency, effectiveness, and ethicality considerations for public opinion formation

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  • Anderson, Brilé
  • Bernauer, Thomas

Abstract

A fundamental policy design choice in government-led climate change mitigation is: what role should flexibility mechanisms like carbon offsetting play in reducing greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions. Since public opinion affects the policy choices of government, we investigate how arguments regarding carbon offsetting's economic efficiency, effectiveness, and ethicality, which have been key points in the public debate, impact the public's preferences. We fielded an online framing experiment in the United States (N=995) to empirically identify how arguments for and against carbon offsetting influence public preferences for the inclusion of offsetting in national GHG mitigation policy. We find that the public's support for international offsetting increases and support for reductions at their source (i.e. within firms' own operations) diminishes when considerations of economic efficiency gains are at the forefront. Support for offsetting declines when individuals are confronted with arguments concerning its effectiveness and ethicality, which suggests that future policies will require clear standards of additionality in order to address these concerns. Moreover, we find that how carbon offsetting is framed matters even amongst climate skeptics and support could potentially be enhanced via improved communication on efficiency gains.

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  • Anderson, Brilé & Bernauer, Thomas, 2016. "How much carbon offsetting and where? Implications of efficiency, effectiveness, and ethicality considerations for public opinion formation," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 94(C), pages 387-395.
    • Handle: RePEc:eee:enepol:v:94:y:2016:i:c:p:387-395
    DOI: 10.1016/j.enpol.2016.04.016
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    4. Bartels, Lara & Kesternich, Martin & Löschel, Andreas, 2021. "The demand for voluntary carbon sequestration: Experimental evidence from a reforestation project in Germany," ZEW Discussion Papers 21-088, ZEW - Leibniz Centre for European Economic Research.
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    6. Femenias Rosselló, Llorenç B. & Bujosa Bestard, Angel & Riera Font, Antoni, 2024. "Is carbon footprint reduction always preferred over offsetting? An analysis of tourists' preferences in the Mallorca region," Economic Analysis and Policy, Elsevier, vol. 81(C), pages 1371-1381.
    7. Jackie Parker & Greg D Simpson & Jonathon Edward Miller, 2020. "Nature-Based Solutions Forming Urban Intervention Approaches to Anthropogenic Climate Change: A Quantitative Literature Review," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 12(18), pages 1-18, September.
    8. Wei, Yigang & Gong, Ping & Zhang, Jianhong & Wang, Li, 2021. "Exploring public opinions on climate change policy in "Big Data Era"—A case study of the European Union Emission Trading System (EU-ETS) based on Twitter," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 158(C).

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