The Impact of Adult Awareness of Climate Change on Renewable Energy Consumption in the United States

I conduct a survey among college students in Texas to assess their willingness to pay for renewable energy to tackle climate change. An individual with a good level of climate awareness is 9.38% more willing to pay extra for renewable energy. Comparably, people with an excellent level of awareness are 23% more likely to financially favor renewable energy than others, given the willingness to pay those with a good level of awareness. Utilizing the ARDL model, I analyze the national-level data to extrapolate the individual-level results on a macroeconomic level. I find that a 1% increase in awareness level would cause an increase in REC by 0.32%, but a $1 increase in the oil price would lead to a rise in REC only by 0.002%. The environmental stringency index (EER), newspaper coverage of climate change (NC), and education (CG) all have statistically significant effects on REC. However, the renewable energy investment (RI), and climate extreme index (CE) have no substantial impact on REC.