Willingness to Pay for Crowdfunding Local Agricultural Climate Solutions

Per Espen Stoknes, Olav B. Soldal, Sissel Hansen, Ingvar Kvande and Sylvia Weddegjerde Skjelderup
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Per Espen Stoknes: BI Norwegian Business School, 0484 Oslo, Norway
Olav B. Soldal: BI Norwegian Business School, 0484 Oslo, Norway
Sissel Hansen: NORSØK, Norwegian Centre for Organic Agriculture, 6630 Tingvoll, Norway
Ingvar Kvande: NORSØK, Norwegian Centre for Organic Agriculture, 6630 Tingvoll, Norway
Sylvia Weddegjerde Skjelderup: Fagskolen Kristiania, 0153 Oslo, Norway

Sustainability, 2021, vol. 13, issue 16, 1-16

Abstract: The recent rise in climate concern among citizens worldwide is coinciding with a rising interest in agricultural climate solutions. The future scaling-up of these solutions, however, requires more knowledge about the mitigation potential, costs and financing options, including crowdfunding (CF). Our objective is to explore the driving factors behind the public’s willingness to pay for crowdfunded climate mitigation projects at the farm level. In this study, four mitigation options from the perspective of farmers were identified: solar panels on the barn roof, biogas from animal manure, drag hoses for improved manure dispersal, and the addition of biochar to soils. The study investigates the optimal characteristics of crowdfunding campaigns to finance such mitigation measures. The most influential factors on the respondents’ WTP is neither climate concern nor proximity, but instead the knowledge regarding CF, combined with how comprehensible and salient the suggested measure is. The main implications are that future projects that aim to achieve broad participation in CF campaigns need to communicate well, to improve both public knowledge of the funding mechanism (CF) itself and the comprehensibility and salience of the agricultural measure.

Keywords: crowdfunding; agricultural economics; climate change; willingness to pay; carbon offsetting; sustainable agriculture (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: O13 Q Q0 Q2 Q3 Q5 Q56 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2021
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (3)

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