Abstract
Despite the seriousness of climate change, political polarisation and right-wing denial of climate change is frequently blamed for stalling effective climate policy. One concerning consequence of climate change is the displacement of people. We identify demographic correlates of acceptance of climate change and support for climate refugee policy within two nations likely to become early recipients of climate-driven migrants: Australia (N = 5110) and New Zealand (N = 5039). Political orientation is the strongest demographic correlate of climate change denial and climate refugee policy support, but deeper analysis shows that while support is highest amongst left-wing partisans, almost all voting groups on average accept climate change and climate migration policy. We argue that current high levels of support indicate potential for cross-partisan policy solutions in both Australia and New Zealand. We also caution about ways polarisation may deepen as we approach a climate refugee crisis.
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Data availability
Data are available by request from the corresponding author.
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Funding
Data collection for the Australian sample was supported with funds from the Australian National University Research School of Psychology awarded to Iain Walker. The funder had no involvement in the study design, data collection, analysis, interpretation of data, writing of the report, or decision to submit the article for publication.
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All authors (SKS, CNTW, ZL, IW) contributed to conceptualisation and writing the manuscript. SKS and CNTW analysed the data.
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The Australian National University Human Research Ethics Committee (2020/429) approved the research protocol for the Australian sample. The Victoria University of Wellington Human Ethics Committee (0000025633) approved the protocol for the New Zealand sample.
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Stanley, S.K., Ng Tseung-Wong, C., Leviston, Z. et al. Acceptance of climate change and climate refugee policy in Australia and New Zealand: The case against political polarisation. Climatic Change 169, 26 (2021). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10584-021-03278-8
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10584-021-03278-8