Political ideology and views toward solar geoengineering in the United States

Beatrice Magistro, Ramit Debnath, Danny Ebanks, Paul O Wennberg and R Michael Alvarez

PLOS Climate, 2025, vol. 4, issue 6, 1-12

Abstract: Political polarization remains a significant barrier to effective climate action in the United States. Conservatives often express skepticism toward climate change policies emphasizing government intervention, while liberals are generally more supportive of these efforts. Solar geoengineering (SG), an emerging technology proposed to cool the Earth’s atmosphere, offers a climate intervention that may transcend entrenched ideological divides. SG remains relatively unknown to the public and has not yet been widely framed in partisan terms. Moreover, its perceived nature as a technological solution could appeal to conservatives resistant to traditional climate measures. This study investigates the relationship between political ideology and public attitudes toward SG, conditional on respondents’ familiarity with the technology. Using a nationally representative sample of 2,109 American voters and applying linear probability and multinomial logistic regression models, we find that greater familiarity with SG is associated with reduced political polarization regarding SG’s perceived effectiveness, associated risks, and preferred climate strategies. Our findings suggest that increasing public awareness of SG could foster bipartisan engagement with climate policy, helping bridge the ideological divide.

Date: 2025
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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:plo:pclm00:0000643

DOI: 10.1371/journal.pclm.0000643

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