Gender and Support for Climate Change Polices: The Case of Ocean Wind Farms

• In Event: Gender and Public Opinion

Abstract

Studies of public opinion on climate change has revealed that women tend to report greater concern for the consequences of climate change than men. This results in a significant gender gap in attitudes towards climate change.

The proposed study relies on a conjoint experiment to address several shortcomings in the literature on the gender gap in environmental attitudes on climate change. The study examines the preferences of respondents regarding ocean wind farm projects in Norway, which provides insight into how men and women trade-off different aspects of climate change policies, such as government subsidies, impacts on other industries and the environment, and the export of electricity to Europe when forming their preferences. Thereby, the study will provide insight into how the gender gap in environmental attitudes translates to policy preferences. The results of this study will contribute to the understanding of how to address the gender gap in environmental attitudes and inform policy-making on ocean wind farms, a key political debate in Norway. Ultimately, this will aid in the development of more effective and equitable policy responses to the issue of climate change.

Authors

• Charlotte Luckner, Norwegian University of Science and Technology

• Henning Finseraas, Norwegian University of Science and Technology