Political polarization in the willingness to make sacrifices for the environment: a cross-national analysis

Political polarization in environmental attitudes can impede the large-scale collective action required to mitigate climate change. Yet while existing research systematically shows that people with right-wing ideological views and political party affiliation express lower support for environmental measures, we know little about how deep such polarization is across countries, and whether the degree of political polarization varies at different levels of social and institutional trust. To reduce this knowledge gap, I use data from the 2020 International Social Survey Program to investigate, in a cross-national perspective, political polarization with regard to the willingness to make sacrifices for environmental causes. I find that polarization is the greatest in the USA but is also relatively high in some European countries. Overall, polarization is higher in more affluent and environmentally better-performing countries. Furthermore, political divisions in the willingness to make such sacrifices are wider among people who have higher levels of social trust. By contrast, at higher levels of institutional trust, political divisions appear to be narrower.