Climate Change Views, Energy Policy Preferences, and Intended Actions Across Welfare State Regimes: Evidence from the European Social Survey

More than three decades of social science research demonstrates environmental issues as important social problems commanding international attention. Although an emerging body of scholarship examines patterns of climate views of general publics worldwide, how these connect to attitudes supportive of renewable energy and energy behavioral intentions across nations is less well understood. We use 2016 data from 17 countries in the European Social Survey Wave 8 to investigate how climate-change views, energy attitudes, political ideology, and socio-demographics shape energy policy preferences and behavioral intention. We estimate our empirical models using structural equation modeling with latent variables. Our findings reveal striking similarities across welfare regimes regarding consistent predictors of green energy policy preferences and energy-efficient behavioral intention. Results also show continued regional distinctiveness for former state socialist nations. This study joins a growing body of researc...