Heat Exposure and Heterogeneities in Climate Change Attitudes and Green Voting in Europe

Jacopo Bassetto , University of Bologna
Jonas Peisker, IIASA
Roman Hoffmann, International Institute For Applied Systems Analysis (IIASA), Wittgenstein Centre for Demography and Global Human Capital
Piero Stanig, Bocconi University
Raya Muttarak, University of Bologna

In this paper we study how exposure to extreme weather episodes affects atti- tudes towards climate change and voting for green parties. Combining information on local temperatures with a nationally representative survey across 28 European countries and two decades, we construct measures of extreme temperature exposure in the weeks before voting in national elections. We find that extreme warm spells af- fect both attitudes towards climate change and green voting behavior. If interviewed in a region exposed to heat waves, individuals become more concerned with climate change and feel stronger responsibility to act against it. If the heat waves occur be- fore a national elections, individuals in warmer regions are more likely to vote for green parties and for coalitions that include green parties. Exploiting a rich set of in- dividual characteristics, we show that the effects on both attitudes and green voting are stronger for the highly educated.

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 Presented in Session P53. Flash session Climate Change, Individual Attitudes and Behavior