New research from LSE reveals just how little UK citizens are willing to pay out of their own pockets to fight climate change - £27 a year.
In the first study of its kind, researchers Dr Tanya O’Garra (Grantham Research Institute) and Professor Susana Mourato (Department of Geography and Environment) asked more than 1000 adults how much they would be willing to contribute personally to a variety of projects designed to help developing countries adapt to climate change.
The results have been published online in the Journal of Environmental Economics and Policy.
Respondents were prepared to pay about £27 more income tax each year to support adaptation efforts in developing countries, the authors found. That’s equivalent to what most people spend on postage stamps each year in the UK. It is also less than one third of the amount needed per capita, according to World Bank estimates.
The LSE study also revealed that most respondents knew little about climate change, with 31% of people believing nature was the main cause, not carbon dioxide emissions.
“A belief that climate change is caused by nature allows some people to absolve themselves of responsibility towards those who will be negatively impacted,” they wrote.
Personal income also has a bearing on the lack of commitment people have to fighting climate change, the authors concluded.
The results have implications for those trying to raise public awareness of the effects of climate change, according to ScienceDaily.
The paper is available at: http://bit.ly/1SNRgXI
Additional notes
Professor Susana Mourato is an environmental economist with over 20 years of professional experience. Her research applies economic techniques to the valuation of a wide range of environmental, health and social impacts related to ecosystem service loss, landscape change, proximity to nature, air and water pollution, climate change, introduction of new energy technologies, and cultural heritage change. She currently leads the economic analysis work package of Climate for Culture, a large interdisciplinary FP7 EU project, and recently led the economic analysis of cultural services for the UK National Ecosystem Assessment.
Dr Tanya O’Garra was a member of the Grantham Research Institute on Climate Change and the Environment when this research was conducted. Until recently, she was also a researcher with the Earth Institute at Colombia University. Tanya has a PhD in Environmental Economics from Imperial College London. She has carried out economic valuation studies of hydrogen transport technologies in the UK, traditional fishing grounds in Fiji, climate change adaptation projects, and defluoridation water treatment plants in rural villages in India.
9 December 2015