PLoS ONE (Jan 2022)

Public expectations about the impact of COVID-19 on climate action by citizens and government.

  • Ivan Savin,
  • Stefan Drews,
  • Jeroen van den Bergh,
  • Sergio Villamayor-Tomas

DOI
https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0266979
Journal volume & issue
Vol. 17, no. 6
p. e0266979

Abstract

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Since the onset of the COVID-19 crisis many have opinionated on how it may affect society's response to climate change. Two key questions here are how COVID-19 is expected to influence climate action by citizens and by the government. We answer these by applying topic modelling to textual responses from a survey of Spanish citizens. The identified topics tend to be more negative than positive, and more optimistic concerning future climate action by citizens. Positive views involve increasing pro-environmental behavior and are more common among younger, higher educated and male respondents as well as among those who perceive climate change as a serious threat or positively assessed COVID-19 confinement. Negative topics express concern that financial resources for climate action will be limited due to a focus on healthcare and economic recovery. In addition, they mention government mismanagement and waste due to use of protective measures like masks and gloves as impediments to effective climate action.