4.7 Article

Individualism and nationally determined contributions to climate change

Journal

SCIENCE OF THE TOTAL ENVIRONMENT
Volume 777, Issue -, Pages -

Publisher

ELSEVIER
DOI: 10.1016/j.scitotenv.2021.146076

Keywords

Cultural values; Individualism; Paris Agreement; Climate mitigation; NDCs

Funding

  1. National Natural Science Foundation of China project [71904201, 71773062]
  2. National Key RAMP
  3. D Program of China [2017YFA0603602]
  4. Science Foundation of China University of Petroleum, Beijing [2462018YJRC026, 2462020YXZZ038]

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Individualism is a significant predictor for the mitigation levels of NDCs, but is not correlated with mitigation ambitions. The study emphasizes the importance of considering cultural context and nuances, and advocates for developing tailored climate communication strategies to enhance NDCs.
Ratcheting up the Nationally Determined Contributions (NDCs) to achieve the Paris Agreement goals requires a better understanding of the enablers and barriers behind NDC formulation. However, existing quantitative analyses on the drivers of NDCs from an anthropological perspective are elusive. This study proposes both a conceptual framework and empirical analysis of how cultural values link with the pledged NDCs. The findings show that individualism (IDV) is a significant and robust predictor for the mitigation levels of NDCs, after controlling for affluence level, renewable energy proportion, democracy and other socioeconomic factors. For every 10-point increase in the IDV score (say from the score of Canada to Australia or from the score of Vietnam to Mexico), the committed per-capita emission in 2030 relative to 1990 levels decrease by 14%-22%. However, such a correlation is absent when assessing the mitigation ambitions using various fair benchmarks. This study underscores the necessity of considering more cultural context and nuances in tackling common climate problems, and advocates for developing tailored climate communication strategies to enhance the NDCs. (c) 2021 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

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