Chinese residents' attitudes toward consumption-side climate policy: The role of climate change perception and environmental topic involvement

Carbon tax policy and green energy policy are considered to be important instruments for CO2 reduction, but usually it is investigated from the production side. From the full lifecycle perspective, however, the consumption side is the main driver of production and process emissions. Given that China is a major carbon emitter and a country with a large population, it is of great significance to understand Chinese residents' attitudes towards climate policies aimed at the consumption side, so as to promote climate policies. We conducted a large-sample survey (N = 4699) to reveal the current state of support for personal carbon tax and green energy policy among Chinese residents. The results showed that Chinese residents were highly supportive of both policies, driven primarily by climate change perception; environmental topic involvement significantly mediated these relationships. We believe that based on our findings, policymakers could consider regulating emissions from the consumption side, increasing public understanding and awareness of climate change, encouraging the public to actively participate in environmental topics, giving financial subsidies to low-income groups and developing regions with unbalanced resources and economy.