Do economic trade-offs matter in climate policy support? Survey evidence from the United Kingdom and Australia

Countries vary in their success in decoupling greenhouse gas emissions from economic growth to meet emissions reduction targets. Using a web-based survey of citizens in the United Kingdom (n = 1009) and Australia (n = 1029), with different decoupling rates, this study assesses levels of citizen support for different types of climate policies, beliefs in trade-offs between emissions reduction and economic growth, and associations between these emissions-economy trade-off beliefs and support for climate policies. The results show compulsory policies, including carbon taxes and bans, receive the highest opposition. There is little variation between the studied countries for climate policy support and emissions-economy trade-off beliefs. The results also show that citizens who are agnostic about economic growth support policies the most. Therefore, decision-makers should focus on communicating climate policies’ economic and social benefits for the economic growth-concerned citizens to increase overall policy support. • Comparative case study of climate policy support in the UK and Australia. • A country's decoupling rate has a minimal effect on climate policy support. • Agnosticism about economic growth leads to higher climate policy support. • Beliefs about emissions and economic trends matter for climate policy support. • Promoting economic and social benefits of climate policy is important.