EXPLORING CONSUMER PREFERENCES FOR NET-ZERO POLICIES: WILLINGNESS TO PAY AMONG UK CITIZENS FOR NATIONAL GREENHOUSE GAS REDUCTION TARGETS UNDER DIFFERENT FUTURE DISCOUNTING ASSUMPTIONS

Ricky N. Lawton and Daniel Fujiwara ()
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Ricky N. Lawton: Ipsos MORI UK, 3 Thomas Moore Square, London E1W 1YW, UK
Daniel Fujiwara: Simetrica Research Consultancy, The Shepherds Building Charecroft Way, Hammersmith, London W14 0EE, UK

Climate Change Economics (CCE), 2023, vol. 14, issue 02, 1-26

Abstract: Following the UK’s hosting of the United Nations Convention of the Parties Climate Summit in 2021, political targets for reducing greenhouse gas emissions — “Net-Zero† — have gained momentum. We address the gap in how public preferences are accounted for in climate decision-making by applying Contingent-Valuation techniques which ask people to state their Willingness-to-Pay (WTP) for the UK’s 2050 Net-Zero target. Mean WTP is £37.57/household to support Net-Zero (median £11.25), with a present-value of £2.3 billion across UK households. While younger people are more likely to experience the long-term impacts of climate change, older generations are willing to pay more to support it, suggesting that public support for Net-Zero is largely based on “nonuse†benefits, rather than direct “use†benefits to oneself. The COVID-19 epidemic affected WTP bids in a quarter of respondents. Finally, we explore how choice of positive or normative discount rate affects policy conclusions when monetizing consumer preferences.

Keywords: Willingness to pay; Net Zero; climate; consumer preferences; contingent valuation (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2023
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DOI: 10.1142/S2010007823500070

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