Perceived national wealth increases support for structural climate policies

Climate change cannot be successfully mitigated solely through individual-level actions. Structural change is urgently needed. While wealthy countries have the greatest capacity to implement structural change, the question remains to what extent perceived country wealth is associated with support for structural climate policies over individual-level behaviour change policies. We found in Australian (Study 1) and UK (Study 2) samples (N = 967) that perceived national wealth positively predicts people's support for structural (vs. individual-level behaviour) change policies. In an experimental (Study 3, N = 401) and a quasi-experimental study (Study 4, N = 400; comparing South African and UK participants), we found that people in both wealthy and poor countries more strongly prefer wealthy (vs. poor) countries to implement structural (vs. individuallevel behaviour) change policies. There was some evidence that these effects are mediated by perceiving wealthy countries to have a moral obligation to contribute to the solution of global issues. The findings suggest that there is considerable public support for wealthy countries to spearhead structural transformations to limit climate change. These insights can help environmental organisations and policymakers to gain public support for climate policies by emphasising their countries' moral obligation to implement change and by countering blamedeflecting narratives.

Automated summary

Climate change cannot be mitigated by individual actions alone. Structural change is necessary, and people in wealthy countries are more likely to support structural climate policies than individual behavior change policies. Perceiving wealthy countries to have a moral obligation to contribute to global solutions may mediate this preference. These findings suggest that there is strong public support for wealthy countries to lead structural transformations in order to address climate change.