CERE seminarium - Therese Lindahl (Beijer Institute of Ecological Economics)

Titel: Political framing for climate policy support

Abstract:
Effective climate mitigation requires policy interventions such as pricing greenhouse gas emissions. Yet, public resistance, especially toward tax-based measures, limits political action. While prior research highlights factors shaping climate-policy support, it often overlooks systematic differences across ideological groups. This study investigates how political ideology and partisan framing influence support for climate policies in Sweden. Using a survey experiment with frames derived from real political debates and party manifestos, we test whether ideologically congruent messaging increases support for policy packages or specific design features. We find ideological differences in baseline support, with left-leaning voters more supportive overall. However, congruent frames do not raise support; instead, a left-green framing reduces support of left leaning voters relative to a neutral frame, suggesting reactance or backlash. Left-leaning voters also adjust their preferences for policy design features in response to framing, whereas right-leaning voters remain largely unaffected. These findings underscore that framing can inadvertently repel key voter segments, with important implications for climate-policy communication and design.