1,720,997 research outputs found
The development of global CO2 emissions
No full textCarbon dioxide emissions are the main cause of anthropogenic climate change and play a central role in discussions on climate change mitigation. Previous research has demonstrated that national carbon dioxide emissions are driven mainly by population size and wealth. However, the variation in per capita emissions of nations with similar standards of living and similar population is huge. This makes investigations on further drivers of emissions important because such research reveals mechanisms that can decrease emission levels. In this chapter we first describe the newest development of global CO2 emissions, both with respect to production-based emissions as well as with respect to consumption-based emissions. Furthermore, we analyze the main drivers of national per capita emissions. Particularly, we extend previous research by taking into account countries’ shares of imports and exports, indicators of political interventions such as energy prices, and the use of renewable energy sources
Testing the Measurement of Environmental Concern: How Do Single Items Perform in Comparison to Multi-Item Scales?
No full textIn this chapter we assess the test-retest reliability and construct validity of a composite measure of environmental concern as it is contained in the environmental modules of the International Social Survey Programme. We follow the multitrait-multimethod approach first suggested by Campbell and Fiske (1959) and compare two instruments, environmental concern and empathy, and two methods, face-to-face personal interviewing and self-administered online surveys. Overall, 310 student volunteers participated in the study, each being interviewed twice within four to six weeks. We also compare the performance of the composite index with two single items that measure environmental concern. The study results suggest that the composite index has high reliability and high validity and outperforms any of the single-item alternatives
Research Handbook on Environmental Sociology
No full textThis Research Handbook presents the state of the art of empirical sociological research on the causes of, and solutions to, pressing environmental problems. It provides cutting-edge insights into some of the most urgent challenges facing humanity, including anthropogenic climate change and environmental pollution. The contributors argue that profound collective efforts to protect the environment are vital for sustainable development and offer practical solutions to specific contemporary issues.
Wide ranging and insightful, this Research Handbook encompasses the causes and consequences of environmental deterioration, the measurement, development and precedents of environmental concern, the determinants of pro-environmental behavior, and the acceptance of environmental policies. Key topics include the development of global CO2 emissions, prices, income and energy demand, climate change knowledge, meta-knowledge and beliefs, the collective risk social dilemma and support for city road tolls.
Scholars and students in the environmental social sciences will find this innovative Research Handbook invaluable. Critical case studies also provide important insights and recommendations for environmental decision makers
Heating System Choice Among Swiss Households: Determinants and Effects of Policy Counterfactuals
No full textBurning fossil fuels for space heating causes environmentally damaging emissions. In this paper, we estimate the determinants of households' heating system choice using information on around 75 000 buildings in the Swiss Canton of Bern. Our results show that households mainly respond to the up-front prices of heating systems and to a lesser extent to future heating resource costs. Buildings in a municipality where a gas distribution network is present are 13 percentage points more likely to heat with gas. We simulate the effects of two policy counterfactuals. An increase in subsidies for heating systems based on renewable energy leads to a strong reduction in the probability to acquire oil-based heating systems and thus to a decrease in annual CO2 emissions of 8 percent. A change in the variable heating costs due to an increase in the CO2 levy on fossil heating fuels also results in lower emissions by 4 percent per year. While the subsidy triggers a larger emission reduction, it is also accompanied by higher government outlays. This highlights the importance to also evaluate the benefits of emission reductions against the costs of achieving them
What determines the attitude-behavior link when voting on renewable energy policies? The roles of problem perception and policy design
No full textThis chapter sheds light on the paradox between the general perception of climate change related problems and resistance to measures addressing it, namely the support of renewable energy policies at the ballot box. Using conjoint analyses, we investigate the role of climate concern and problem priority for individual support of proposed policies, whereby we vary their design. This enables us not only to estimate levels of support, but also how these depend on the interaction between individual attitudes and policy characteristics. We find that the attitude-behavior link is strongest for respondents with the most clear-cut attitudes, i.e., those who do not believe in human-induced climate change, on the one hand, and those who strongly prioritize climate and energy-related issues, on the other. Conversely, for the large majority of citizens who are somewhat concerned about climate change but do not perceive related issues as a priority, the attitude-behavior link is more strongly dependent on cost-benefit considerations with respect to concrete policy designs.LEUR
The nexus between social inequality and CO2 emissions revisited: Challenging its empirical validity
Full text linkRecently, a discussion about the ambiguity of the nexus between social inequality and anthropogenic CO2 emissions has emerged. Macroeconomic panel studies applying region and time fixed effects (FE) regression models and measuring inequality by the Gini coefficient discovered a flat relationship. Only two of these studies substituting Gini by the more appropriate share held by the top 10 percent of the income or wealth distribution find a positive effect. This paper revisits this nexus and challenges the empirical validity of the contribution of an increase in wealth and income inequality to higher CO2 emissions lately found by Knight et al. (2017) on country-level and by Jorgenson et al. (2017) on U.S. state-level. The positive inequality effects spotted in these two studies are not robust with respect to the regions and time spans observed as well as to the inequality indicators, estimation techniques, and confounders selected. Hence, this in-depth investigation suggests that there is no sound empirical evidence for a substantial nexus between social inequality and CO2 emissions. After all, lately proposed policy approaches combining efficient cap-and trade programs with income and wealth redistribution (so-called cap-and-dividend schemes) are not, by themselves, suitable for an effective climate policy. In fact, the analysis points at the relevance of treating key predictors of CO2 emissions including energy prices for the U.S. for effective climate change mitigation
Dataset used in the publication : "The power of social influence: A replication and extension of the Asch experiment" by Axel Franzen and Sebastian Mader (PLOS ONE 2023)
Full text linkIn this paper, we pursue four goals: First, we replicate the original Asch experiment with five confederates and one naïve subject in each group (N = 210). Second, in a randomized trial we incentivize the decisions in the line experiment and demonstrate that monetary incentives lower the error rate, but that social influence is still at work. Third, we confront subjects with different political statements and show that the power of social influence can be generalized to matters of political opinion. Finally, we investigate whether intelligence, self-esteem, the need for social approval, and the Big Five are related to the susceptibility to provide conforming answers. We find an error rate of 33% for the standard length-of-line experiment which replicates the original findings by Asch (1951, 1955, 1956). Furthermore, in the incentivized condition the error rate decreases to 25%. For political opinions we find a conformity rate of 38%. However, besides openness, none of the investigated personality traits are convincingly related to the susceptibility of group pressure
Plant trees for the planet: The potential of forests for climate change mitigation and the major drivers of national forest area
Full text linkForests are one of the most cost-effective ways to sequester carbon today. Here, I estimate the world’s land share under forests required to prevent dangerous climate change. For this, I combine newest longitudinal data of FLUXNET on forests’ net ecosystem exchange of carbon (NEE) from 78 forest sites (N=607) with countries’ mean temperature and forest area. This straightforward approach indicates that the world’s forests sequester 8.3 GtCO2yr-1. For the 2 °C climate target the current forest land share has to be doubled to 60.0 % to sequester an additional 7.8 GtCO2yr-1, which demands less red meat consumption. This afforestation/reforestation (AR) challenge is achievable, as the estimated global biophysical potential of AR is 8.0 GtCO2yr-1 safeguarding food supply for 10 billion people. Climate-responsible countries have the highest AR potential. For effective climate policies, knowledge on the major drivers of forest area is crucial. Enhancing information here, I analyse forest land share data of 98 countries from 1990 to 2015 applying causal inference (N=2,494). The results highlight that population growth, industrialization, and increasing temperature reduce forest land share, while more protected forest and economic growth generally increase it. In all, this study confirms the potential of AR for climate change mitigation with a straightforward approach based on the direct measurement of NEE. This might provide a more valid picture given the shortcomings of indirect carbon stock-based inventories. The analysis identifies future regional hotspots for the AR potential and informs the need for fast and forceful action to prevent dangerous climate change
Going Beyond Counting First Authors in Author Co-citation Analysis
Full text linkThe present study examines one of the fundamental aspects of author co-citation analysis (ACA) - the way co-citation
counts are defined. Co-citation counting provides the data on which all subsequent statistical analyses and mappings
are based, and we compare ACA results based on two different types of co-citation counting - the traditional type that
only counts the first one among a cited work's authors on the one hand and a non-traditional type that takes into
account the first 5 authors of a cited work on the other hand. Results indicate that the picture produced through this non-traditional author co-citation counting contains more coherent author groups and is therefore considerably clearer. However, this picture represents fewer specialties in the research field being studied than that produced through the traditional first-author co-citation counting when the same number of top-ranked authors is selected and analyzed. Reasons for these effects are discussed
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