Social Capital Influence on Climate Change Mitigation Policies

Abstract: For successful government implementation of climate change mitigation policies, public support is necessary to make these policies as effective as possible. Climate change requires collective action to reduce greenhouse gases currently emitted. Two factors have been suggested to have an important influence on support for policy implementation and climate policies: social capital, and risk perception. Social capital has been conceptualized into four categories, social trust, institutional trust, formal social networks, and informal social networks. Using data from the European Social Survey (2016), the study explores public support for climate change mitigation policies and whether they are associated with social capital and climate change risk perception. The study found that social trust, institutional trust, formal social networks, and climate change risk perception were positively linked with support for different types of climate policies, such as taxes, subsidies, and bans. Both social trust and formal social networks are suggested to have possible moderating effects on the relationship between climate change risk perception and support for climate policies. This study demonstrates the importance of acknowledging the social dimensions within societies and the influence of risk awareness when it comes to understanding the support for climate change policy implementation.