Increasing public support for climate policy proposals: a research agenda on governable acceptability factors

Addressing climate change demands a varied policy toolkit, ranging from supportive measures to more assertive interventions. However, the latter, especially when impacting consumers’ daily lives, often face public opposition. Current research mainly investigates personal or country-level characteristics and personal perceptions that are beyond the direct influence of policymakers, offering limited insight into enhancing the acceptability of specific policy instruments within a given societal context. Acceptability factors that policy-makers can directly influence have received less attention and mostly in single-case or single-factor studies. This perspective article critiques the current state of knowledge and calls for a surge in research on ‘governable acceptability factors’. It introduces them as a key category for future research, proposes a definition, and outlines research needs and questions concerning four sub-categories of such factors: policy instrument characteristics, temporal aspects, actor involvement, and communication. Stringent climate policy measures can gain wider public support through a carefully designed policy bundle, combining highly intervening with supportive measures and consumption- with production-related measures.Inclusive participation in the policy-making process and carefully considered communication can also enhance public support.Strategic timing and coalition building as well as temporally limited policy trials or a phased policy implementation with increasing stringency also have potential for positive acceptability effects – but more research is needed on these factors.More comparative and mixed-methods research is necessary to investigate the context dependence and the interaction between acceptability factors. The results would empower policymakers to design and implement more acceptable climate policy measures.