Varför leder individers upplevelse av personligt ansvar att minska klimatförändringarna inte alltid till att de stödjer klimatpolitiska åtgärder? : En komparativ studie i Europa om länken mellan personligt ansvar och stödet för ökade skatter på fossila br

Sammanfattning: Previous research shows that human activities have clearly caused the ongoing global warming, mainly through the release of greenhouse gases. Carbon dioxide and fuel taxes are often considered relatively cost-effective climate policy measures because they have been shown to be a successful way to reduce emissions where they have been introduced. However, support for these climate policy measures is weak and there is an attitudinal gap between the opinions of the public and experts. This essay therefore aims to increase knowledge about the connection between individuals' perceived degree of personal responsibility to counteract climate change and their support for climate policy measures in the form of paying higher fuel taxes. This has been carried out using mean value analysis as well as bivariate correlation analyses. The study´s results show that there is a weak relationship between perceived personal responsibility for reducing climate change and support for increased taxes on fossil fuels. Of the contextual factors at the country level, the results showed that it was the Quality of Government that best explained the gap between perceived personal responsibility and support for fossil fuel taxes. Social trust and GDP per capita were also important variables in the attempt to explain the weak connection. Political trust also showed a positive relationship; however, the variable had the weakest degree of explanation.