A1 Refereed original research article in a scientific journal

Extreme weather event attribution predicts climate policy support across the world




AuthorsCologna, Viktoria; Meiler, Simona; Kropf, Chahan M.; Lüthi, Samuel; Mede, Niels G.; Bresch, David N.; Lecuona, Oscar; Berger, Sebastian; Besley, John; Brick, Cameron; Joubert, Marina; Maibach, Edward W.; Mihelj, Sabina; Oreskes, Naomi; Schäfer, Mike S.; Linden, Sander van der

PublisherNature research

Publication year2025

JournalNature Climate Change

Volume15

First page 725

Last page735

ISSN1758-678X

eISSN1758-6798

DOIhttps://doi.org/10.1038/s41558-025-02372-4

Web address https://doi.org/10.1038/s41558-025-02372-4

Self-archived copy’s web addresshttps://research.utu.fi/converis/portal/detail/Publication/500420472


Abstract

Extreme weather events are becoming more frequent and intense due to climate change. Yet, little is known about the relationship between exposure to extreme events, subjective attribution of these events to climate change, and climate policy support, especially in the Global South. Combining large-scale natural and social science data from 68 countries (N = 71,922), we develop a measure of exposed population to extreme weather events and investigate whether exposure to extreme weather and subjective attribution of extreme weather to climate change predict climate policy support. We find that most people support climate policies and link extreme weather events to climate change. Subjective attribution of extreme weather was positively associated with policy support for five widely discussed climate policies. However, exposure to most types of extreme weather event did not predict policy support. Overall, these results suggest that subjective attribution could facilitate climate policy support.


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Funding information in the publication
Open access funding provided by Swiss Federal Institute of Technology Zurich.


Last updated on 2025-02-10 at 15:14