This article studies the attitudes of the public and politicians toward a tax on red and processed meat in Sweden, and how acceptability is affected by framing the tax as either: 1) a climate tax, 2) a public health tax, or 3) both a climate and public health tax, as well as specifying the use of tax revenues to a) support agriculture, b) support further climate [public health] initiatives, c) reduce VAT on broad categories of foods, or d) reduce VAT specifically on fruit and vegetables. These revenue uses were designed to isolate the impact of effectiveness, cost-neutrality and compensation of affected groups. Experimental survey-data were collected from 3,233 citizens and 1,253 politicians. The results showed that framing the tax had no effect on politicians and only a minor one on citizens; they became slightly more positive about the combined climate and public health justification compared to solely public health. The acceptability was generally greater when revenues were specified as opposed to unspecified, but the two cost-neutral revenue uses (a tax shift entailing either a broad reduction of VAT or just on fruit and vegetables) were the most acceptable proposals to both the public and politicians. The feasibility of implementing a tax on red and processed meat could be improved by ensuring that the average consumer’s total food costs do not increase and that any revenues are used to enhance the effectiveness of such a tax.

The expanding field of public acceptance consistently shows left-leaning ideology as a predictor of support for many climate policy instruments. However, little work has been done to investigate the indirect links between ideology and policy-specific beliefs like perceived fairness, effectiveness and infringement on personal freedom on policy acceptance. Of this work, none pertain specifically to taxes that target greenhouse gas emissions from food consumption, called climate-motivated food taxes (CMF tax). CMF taxes are useful for studying the factors underlying ideology because they intersect with changing personal behaviour, which especially triggers ideological concerns. Moreover, CMF taxes appear to be an effective way to curb emissions stemming from the production of animal products, primarily beef and dairy, which are responsible for nearly a third of global emissions. Lastly, this study provides insight into how the predictability of ideological effects on policy acceptance differs in countries also beyond those classically studied (such as the USA and countries in Europe) by utilizing survey data collected in 2023 from Brazil, Germany, India, South Africa, Sweden and the USA (N = 10,513). We find direct and indirect links between ideology and policy acceptability, where fairness and effectiveness beliefs about policies mediate more of the effect than beliefs about freedom.

In 2021, governments of 51 countries spent US$697 billion on subsidizing fossil fuels. Removing fossil fuel subsidies is crucial not only for reducing CO2 emissions and making carbon pricing more effective, but also for making more valuable use of government funds. Currently, however, scientific evidence on the scale and scope of public attitudes towards fossil fuel subsidy-removal policies is lacking, yet it is instrumental for gauging political feasibility. Furthermore, previous studies tend to focus on carbon pricing in the developed world only. Here we present a comparative analysis of attitudes towards both carbon taxation and fossil fuel subsidy removal, focusing on five developing countries across four continents. It is found that (1) removing fossil fuel subsidies is not more undesirable than introducing carbon taxation and (2) the public has more-positive attitudes towards subsidy removal if optimal use of the saved fiscal revenues is specified.

Removing fossil fuel subsidies is important for mitigation and making carbon pricing polices effective. We find that removing subsidies on fossil fuels may not generate more public resistance (or support) than introducing a carbon tax, and by specifying alternatives for revenue recycling, the level of acceptability may increase.

This article studies if, how, and why different revenue uses affect public attitudes to environmental taxation. More specifically, using a large-scale (N = 4292) randomized survey experiment with a 2 × 3 factorial design, the article analyses how attitudes towards a proposed increase in the current air passenger tax in Sweden are altered when combining a tax increase with three different suggestions for revenue use. The increasingly popular fee-and-dividend solution, where revenues are distributed back to the public, thus decreasing negative distributive tax effects, is compared with two additional revenue uses: unspecified government spending on welfare services, and re-investment of revenues into aviation biofuels. Our results show that, although some of the commonly used independent variables such as climate concern, personal norms and political-ideological orientation are significant in determining policy attitudes, varying both tax level and revenue use also tangibly affects how a policy proposal is received. Interestingly, however, the fee-and-dividend approach does not yield the most positive policy attitudes. Rather, directing the revenues to fund an increased use of biofuels for aviation is the alternative that most clearly drives positive attitudes to this policy, and is also the alternative that is perceived as the most effective and fair in both the high tax and the low tax alternatives.

The Social Sciences and Humanities (SSH) have a key role to play in understanding which factors and policies would motivate, encourage and enable different actors to adopt a wide range of sustainable energy behaviours and support the required system changes and policies. The SSH can provide critical insights into how consumers could be empowered to consistently engage in sustainable energy behaviour, support and adopt new technologies, and support policies and changes in energy systems. Furthermore, they can increase our understanding of how organisations such as private and public institutions, and groups and associations of people can play a key role in the sustainable energy transition. We identify key questions to be addressed that have been identified by the Platform for Energy Research in the Socio-economic Nexus (PERSON, see person.eu), including SSH scholars who have been studying energy issues for many years. We identify three main research themes. The first research theme involves understanding which factors encourage different actors to engage in sustainable energy behaviour. The second research theme focuses on understanding which interventions can be effective in encouraging sustainable energy behaviour of different actors, and which factors enhance their effects. The third research theme concerns understanding which factors affect public and policy support for energy policy and changes in energy systems, and how important public concerns can best be addressed as to reduce or prevent resistance.

Carbon taxes are frequently advocated as a means of reducing greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions, yet their political feasibility remains a challenge. To enhance their political appeal, carbon tax proponents have proposed revenue recycling as a means of alleviating public concern with this instrument's visible costs. Analyzing data from identical survey-experiments administered in the United States, Canada, and Germany, we examine the extent to which returning revenues to the public has the potential to broaden the political acceptability of carbon taxes across ideological and national contexts. While public opinion is sensitive to the cost attributes of carbon taxes, we find that in some cases, opposition to carbon taxes can be offset by a reduction in income taxes. However, these effects tend to be modest in size, limited to some ideological groups, and varied across countries. Moreover, we demonstrate that fairness perceptions are a crucial mechanism linking revenue recycling to carbon tax support in all countries examined. 

Framework legislation on climate change is coming of age. Ever more nation states and sub-state entities are passing Climate Change Acts (CCAs) – framework legislation that lays down general principles and obligations for climate change policymaking – and a number of early adopters are updating or replacing their initial legislation. This provides an opportune moment to bring together and move forward the scholarship on CCAs, examining where they have come from (their origins), how they work in practice (their dynamics), and what impacts they are having on the world and how it is organized (their consequences). The contributions to this Special Issue analyse the CCAs of Sweden, Mexico, New Zealand, Australian subnational governments, the UK, Denmark, Scotland and Austria as well as an unsuccessful attempt to introduce a Belgian CCA. Collectively, they add a wealth of new perspectives to the growing scholarship, identifying policy insights that can inspire further scholarship and future policy endeavours that can learn from these cases. The Special Issue contributions demonstrate that a number of contextual factors and elements of parliamentary process are important for successful passing of CCAs and/or high levels of ambition in the legislation itself. They highlight both the dangers and potential of policy fragmentation as dynamics of CCAs and the potential role for advisory bodies to shape these dynamics. Finally, consequences are identified in changes in political culture, parliamentary debate and the emergence of specific policies. 

The mining industries of Sweden and Finland currently face several policy issues around investment, stakeholder involvement, and sustainability. Since the two countries garnered significant attention during the mining boom, research from a social sciences perspective grew significantly. One approach to understanding how these issues in Sweden and Finland compare to international examples is through an analysis of the policy development framework. Looking at three factors—institutions, actors, and process—gives a broad overview of the imminent challenges in both Sweden and Finland and potential lessons from existing research that point to similar problems and their solutions. As the mining operations continue to sit at the center of different values, capable policy is required.

Has the Swedish Climate Policy Framework – including the new Swedish Climate Act – adopted in June 2017, been conducive to advancing climate mitigation, and if so, to what extent and in which aspects? Although Sweden is often described as a frontrunner in climate work, several evaluations prior to the adoption of the Climate Policy Framework and the Climate Act concluded that Swedish climate policy has suffered from both implementation and monitoring deficits, as well as from the fact that climate goals and strategies were non-legally binding. Taken together, such deficits make the stable, long-term prioritizing of climate mitigation over other sector policies increasingly difficult, thus limiting the possibilities to reach future targets. This article focuses on three dimensions of climate policy integration – assessing policy processes, outputs and outcomes – with the aim to analyse political developments and policy outcomes in Sweden after the implementation of the Climate Policy Framework and the Climate Act. The results of a comprehensive set of interviews with policy experts and high-level decision-makers show that the framework is believed to have had important effects, mainly in terms of changing both policy language, cross-sector coordination, and increasing the prioritization of the climate issue. Thus the study (1) contributes to a better theoretical and empirical understanding of Climate Change Acts as instruments for climate policy integration; (2) paves the way for future comparative studies; and (3) presents important practical lessons for policy makers on the effects of legal mechanisms to achieve climate mitigation.