Conference Agenda

This paper investigates the ideological underpinnings of right-wing populist (RWP) opposition to climate policies in Europe. Despite widespread public consensus on the urgency of climate action, RWP parties and their supporters often exhibit significant resistance. This study analyzes how core attitudinal elements of populist ideology, such as nationalism, authoritarianism, and anti-elitism, influence opposition to climate policies. Utilizing data from the European Social Survey, Chapel Hill Expert Survey, and the Populist dataset, the research examines these dynamics across fourteen European countries.

Findings reveal that RWP climate opposition is closely tied to nativist and anti-elitist attitudes. Personal values emphasizing conservation and resistance to change, combined with low support for self-transcendence values, are significant predictors of climate policy opposition. The study also highlights the indirect effect of these values via core RWP attitudes.

The results underscore the broader societal antagonism inherent in populist ideology, which frames climate policies as part of an elitist, cosmopolitan agenda. This opposition reflects a deep-seated resistance to international cooperation and cosmopolitan values. By integrating party and value cues into the analysis, this study offers a comprehensive understanding of the roots of RWP climate policy opposition, contributing to the broader literature on public opinion formation and populist ideologies.

Climate change consequences are undoubtedly challenging planet Earth and its inhabitants. In response, different policies and political stands have emerged, ranging from denial to coping and mitigating the climate change consequences. The European Green Deal for example is a set of policy initiatives by the European Commission with the overarching aim of making Europe climate neutral in 2050 (EU Commission, 2020). While such holistic commitments on continent level are necessary to mitigate climate change consequences, country level commitments could depend on the politicians and the citizens.

Previous studies have discussed the differences of right and left parties in their approach towards the climate change challenge. Perceiving higher risks in climate change as a collective risk is attributed to liberalism whereas being sensitive to behaviors with higher personal risks such as in alcoholism is attributed to conservatism (Jung & Mittal, 2020). Individuals’ political ideology, including their visions and goals for social and political systems and their ideologies for how a society should function, is shown to influence their consumption beliefs and behaviors, among many other everyday behaviors and beliefs (Duhachek et al., 2014).

Against this background, the aim of this study is to investigate the link between individual’s political ideology, climate change beliefs/concerns and sustainable consumption. This is an important relationship to investigate because it can determine the segments in society which can be targeted for sustainable consumption and alternatively for educating about climate change and consumption. It can further emphasize the responsibility of political parties for influencing the climate change beliefs in their supporters.

This study utilizes round 8 of European Social Survey data to investigate the link between political ideology, climate change beliefs, consumer intentions to buy energy efficient appliances, and to ban non-efficient energy appliances. The moderating effect of political interest on these relationships has also been investigated. Results reveal that climate change belief/concern fully mediates the relationship between political ideology and buying energy efficient appliances, whereas the mediation is partial when banning the inefficient appliances is the dependent variable. Supporters of right-orientation who are interested in politics score low on climate change beliefs and concerns. We also find significant effects for socio-demographic variables (age, gender, education) on consumers' sustainable consumption intentions. The findings of this study can be used by companies to better target their sustainable products and services.

References

Adam Duhachek, DaHee Han, and Zakary L. Tormala (2014),"Stability Vs. Change: the Effect of Political Ideology on Product Preference", in NA - Advances in Consumer Research Volume 42, eds. June Cotte and Stacy Wood, Duluth, MN: Association for Consumer Research, Pages: 59-64.

Jung, J., & Mittal, V. (2020). Political Identity and the Consumer Journey: A Research Review. Journal of Retailing, 96(1), 55–73. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jretai.2019.09.003

European commission (2020) The European Green Deal - European Commission (europa.eu)

Political initiatives and extreme weather events have been found to shape attitudes towards Climate Change (CC). Yet, their effect can be dampened by ideological and cognitive barriers. We study two global, bipartisan, political initiatives, 2021’s COP26 in Glasgow and 2016’s COP22 in Marrakech, boosting CC salience but having limited short-term repercussions. We merge responses to Waves 8 and 10 of the European Social Survey, whose roll-out overlapped with the two Conferences, with daily, gridded temperature data, and find that respondents exposed to upwards temperature anomalies before the interview are more concerned about CC. Even accounting for such local salience shocks, respondents interviewed throughout Glasgow’s COP26 - but not COP22 - and in the weeks following it, were more likely to express preoccupation about CC. The effect appears driven by respondents who are right-wing and report a lower interest in politics, with the former also experiencing a reduction in skepticism towards anthropogenic CC.

Taking part in one of the science project of EOSC (European Open Science Cloud) Future opened up a possibility for the ESS to engage in interdisciplinary activities involving research domains outside the SSHOC (Social Sciences and Humanities Open Science Cloud) cluster and engaging with environmental scientists from the ENVRI community. In Science Project 9 ‘Climate Neutral and Smart Cities’ social scientists and environmental specialist collaborated to make meteorological data and air quality data integratable with data from the ESS. The presentation focuses on achievements from this collaboration, and common activities taking place after the end of the project.