Think Globally, Act Locally: The Determinants of Local Policymakers’ Support for Climate Policy
Date and Time
Location
Join the Environment and Natural Resources Program for a seminar featuring Joshua Schwartz, Grand Strategy, Security, and Statecraft Fellow with the International Security Program, and Sabrina Arias, Political Science PhD Candidate at the University of Pennsylvania, who will present their research on the determinants of local policymakers' support for climate initiatives.
Join the Environment and Natural Resources Program for a seminar featuring Joshua Schwartz, Grand Strategy, Security, and Statecraft Fellow with the International Security Program, and Sabrina Arias, Political Science PhD Candidate at the University of Pennsylvania, who will present their research on the determinants of local policymakers' support for climate initiatives.
Given the lack of sufficient progress at the national level to combat climate change, local environmental initiatives have taken on increased importance. However, relatively little research examines the policy preferences of local policymakers themselves, whether the design features of climate policies impact their preferences, and whether policymaker and public preferences are contradictory or congruent. To address these gaps in the literature, we conduct a conjoint experiment on over 500 local policymakers and pair this elite experiment with an identical replication conducted on the American public. Per our theoretical expectations, we find that a range of climate policy design elements have a significant impact on policymaker support, and elite preferences are largely congruent with public preferences. Although national polarization over climate change suggests hope for progress is far-fetched, our findings demonstrate progress is indeed possible at the local level if environmental policies are optimally designed to maximize support.
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Contact: ehanlon@hks.harvard.edu