Public opinion about solar radiation management: A cross-cultural study in 20 countries around the world

Contzen N. Perlaviciute G. Steg L. Reckels S.C. Alves S. Bidwell D. Böhm G. Bonaiuto M. Chou L.-F. Corral-Verdugo V. Dessi F. Dietz T. Doran R. Eulálio M.D.C. Fielding K. Gómez-Román C. Granskaya J.V. Gurikova T. Hernández B. Kabakova M.P. Lee C.-Y. Li F. Lima M.L. Liu L. Luís S. Muinos G. Ogunbode C.A. Ortiz M.V. Pidgeon N. Pitt M.A. Rahimi L. Revokatova A. Reyna C. Schuitema G. Shwom R. Yalcinkaya N.S. Spence E. Sütterlin B.
April 2024 Springer Science and Business Media B.V.

Climatic Change
2024 #177 Issue 4

Some argue that complementing climate change mitigation measures with solar radiation management (SRM) might prove a last resort to limit global warming to 1.5 °C. To make a socially responsible decision on whether to use SRM, it is important to consider also public opinion, across the globe and particularly in the Global South, which would face the greatest risks from both global warming and SRM. However, most research on public opinion about SRM stems from the Global North. We report findings from the first large-scale, cross-cultural study on the public opinion about SRM among the general public (N = 2,248) and students (N = 4,583) in 20 countries covering all inhabited continents, including five countries from the Global South and five ‘non-WEIRD’ (i.e. not Western, Educated, Industrialised, Rich, and Democratic) countries from the Global North. As public awareness of SRM is usually low, we provided participants with information on SRM, including key arguments in favour of and against SRM that appear in the scientific debate. On average, acceptability of SRM was significantly higher in the Global South than in the ‘non-WEIRD’ Global North, while acceptability in the ‘WEIRD’ Global North was in between. However, we found substantial variation within these clusters, especially in the ‘non-WEIRD’ Global North, suggesting that countries do not form homogenous clusters and should thus be considered individually. Moreover, the average participants’ views, while generally neither strong nor polarised, differed from some expert views in important ways, including that participants perceived SRM as only slightly effective in limiting global warming. Still, our data suggests overall a conditional, reluctant acceptance. That is, while on average, people think SRM would have mostly negative consequences, they may still be willing to tolerate it as a potential last resort to fight global warming, particularly if they think SRM has only minor negative (or even positive) impacts on humans and nature.

Climate engineering , Perceived benefits , Perceived justice , Perceived risks , Public opinion , Technology acceptance

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Environmental Health Psychology Group, Department of Environmental Social Sciences, Eawag: Swiss Federal Institute of Aquatic Science and Technology, Überlandstrasse 133, Dübendorf, 8600, Switzerland
Environmental Psychology Group, Department of Psychology, Faculty of Behavioural and Social Sciences, University of Groningen, Grote Kruisstraat 2/1, Groningen, 9712TS, Netherlands
Department of Psychology of Development and Socialisation Processes, Sapienza University of Rome, Via dei Marsi 78, Rome, 00185, Italy
Department of Marine Affairs, University of Rhode Island, 1 Greenhouse Road, Kingston, 02852, RI, United States
Department of Psychosocial Science, University of Bergen, Christiesgate 12, Bergen, N‑5015, Norway
Department of Psychology, Inland Norway University of Applied Sciences, Lillehammer, Norway
CIRPA Interuniversity Centre for Research in Environmental Psychology, Sapienza University of Rome, Via dei Marsi 78, Rome, 00185, Italy
Department of Psychology, National Cheng Kung University, No.1 University Road, Tainan City, 701, Taiwan
Environmental Psychology Group, Department of Psychology, Social Sciences Division, University of Sonora, Blvd. Luis Encinas y Rosales S/N, Hermosillo, Sonora, 83000, Mexico
Environmental Science and Policy Program and Sociology, Michigan State University, 509 East Circle Drive, East Lansing, 48864, MI, United States
Group of Studies and Research in Aging and Health, Department of Psychology, State University of Paraíba, Rua Baraúnas, 351, Campina Grande, Paraíba, Brazil
School of Communication and Arts, University of Queensland, St Lucia Campus, Brisbane, 4072, QLD, Australia
CRETUS institute, Department of Social Psychology, Basic and Methodology, Universidade de Santiago de Compostela, Campus Vida, Calle Xosé María Suárez Núñez, s/n, A Coruña, Santiago de Compostela, 15782, Spain
Department of Psychology, St. Petersburg State University, Universitetskaya emb. 7/9, St.Petersburg, 199034, Russian Federation
Center for Sociological and Internet Research, St. Petersburg State University, Universitetskaya emb. 7/9, St.Petersburg, 199034, Russian Federation
Departamento de Psicología Cognitiva, Social y Organizacional, Facultad de Psicología y Logopedia, University of La Laguna, Apartado 456, La Laguna, 38200, Spain
Department of General and Applied Psychology, Faculty of Philosophy and Political Science, Al-Farabi Kazakh National University, al-Farabi Ave., 71, Almaty, 050040, Kazakhstan
College of Humanities and Development Studies, Department of Development Management, China Agricultural University, No. 2 Yuanmingyuan West Road, Beijing, 100193, China
Centro de Investigação e Intervenção Social (CIS-IUL), Instituto Universitário de Lisboa (ISCTE-IUL), Av. das Forças Armadas, Lisboa, 1649-026, Portugal
School of Psychology, University of Nottingham, University Park, Nottingham, NG7 2RD, United Kingdom
Instituto de Investigaciones Psicológicas (IIPsi), Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas (CONICET), Universidad Nacional de Córdoba (UNC), Bv. De la Reforma esquina Enrique Barros s/n, 3er piso, Ciudad Universitaria, Córdoba, 5000, Argentina
Understanding Risk Research Group and Leverhulme Centre for Climate Change Mitigation, School of Psychology, Cardiff University, Wales, Cardiff, CF10 3AT, United Kingdom
Department of Architecture, Faculty of Civil Engineering, University of Tabriz, 29 Bahman Blvd, Tabriz, 5166616471, Iran
Laboratory of Study of the global climate stabilization processes, Yu. A. Izrael Institute of Global Climate and Ecology, st. Glebovskaya, 20B, Moscow, 107258, Russian Federation
Marketing Department, UCD College of Business, University College Dublin, Carysfort Avenue, co Dublin, Blackrock, Ireland
Department of Human Ecology, Rutgers University, 55 Dudley Road, New Brunswick, 08901, NJ, United States
Department of Psychology, Bogazici University, Bebek/İstanbul, 34342, Turkey
Consumer Behavior, Institute for Environmental Decisions (IED), ETH Zurich, Universitätstrasse 22, Zurich, 8092, Switzerland
Institute of Sustainable Development (INE), School of Engineering, Zurich University of Applied Sciences, Technoparkstrasse 2, Winterthur, 8401, Switzerland

Environmental Health Psychology Group
Environmental Psychology Group
Department of Psychology of Development and Socialisation Processes
Department of Marine Affairs
Department of Psychosocial Science
Department of Psychology
CIRPA Interuniversity Centre for Research in Environmental Psychology
Department of Psychology
Environmental Psychology Group
Environmental Science and Policy Program and Sociology
Group of Studies and Research in Aging and Health
School of Communication and Arts
CRETUS institute
Department of Psychology
Center for Sociological and Internet Research
Departamento de Psicología Cognitiva
Department of General and Applied Psychology
College of Humanities and Development Studies
Centro de Investigação e Intervenção Social (CIS-IUL)
School of Psychology
Instituto de Investigaciones Psicológicas (IIPsi)
Understanding Risk Research Group and Leverhulme Centre for Climate Change Mitigation
Department of Architecture
Laboratory of Study of the global climate stabilization processes
Marketing Department
Department of Human Ecology
Department of Psychology
Consumer Behavior
Institute of Sustainable Development (INE)

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