Pay-As-You-Throw (PAYT) tariff schemes, in which households pay based on their waste generation, are proposed as solutions to the growing worldwide challenge of municipal solid waste management. However, public acceptance of such schemes remains low. Using a one-factor between-subject experimental survey design with 620 participants, we test the effects of environmental and accountability appeals and of individual characteristics in shaping preferences for a proposed PAYT scheme in Grenoble, France. We find a positive effect of the accountability appeal and no effect of the environmental appeal on preference for the PAYT scheme compared to a fixed-fee scheme. Additional analyses suggest that accountability appeals are particularly effective for individuals with below-median age, above-median income, and at least a master’s degree, indicating that policymakers should target younger and educated citizens with these appeals in PAYT campaigns. Future research could test the applicability of these findings in other settings and for other waste-related interventions.

The European Emissions Trading System was established in 2005 and regulates greenhouse gas emissions across energy, industry, and aviation sectors in EU Member States. Since 2013, the share of auctioned allowances has increased, and will further increase in the future. A higher share of auctioning is generally considered to improve efficiency of an emissions trading system. However, increased auctioning may increase search activity on the secondary market because it increases companies' financial incentives to find more favourable trading options, potentially undermining efficiency gains of auctioning compared to free allocation. Employing trading and company data from 2005 to 2017, this study empirically examines if increased auctioning affects companies' search for favourable secondary market trading options, specifically in terms of the number of trading partners and trading frequency. Results from estimating panel econometric models suggest that companies with a higher absolute net position value and higher banking stock value indeed intensify their secondary market search activities, ceteris paribus. Because the size effects appear to be rather small, however, any additional search costs are likely to be more than offset by the positive effects of a higher auction share compared to free allocation.

This paper investigates factors that enable or impede the strategic and organizational institutionalization of climate change mitigation (CCM) in municipalities in Germany. Institutionalization refers to the formalization of CCM and involves its integration into the strategies and administrative structures of municipal governments and their administrations. Empirically, we distinguish three indicators to measure strategic institutionalization, i.e. adopting a CCM plan, setting a CCM target, and compiling an inventory of CO2 emissions. To measure organizational institutionalization, we use two indicators, i.e. dedicating a budget to CCM and creating a unit dedicated to CCM. The econometric analyzes are based on an original sample of 550 municipalities with 5,000–500,000 inhabitants combined with secondary data from external databases. The findings suggest that municipalities are more likely to institutionalize CCM if they frequently exchange climate-related information with other municipalities, civil society actors, and companies (relational factor), have higher shares of votes for the Green party (political factor), and are more urbanized (structural factor). In general, similar factors are associated with the strategic and organizational institutionalization of CCM. Observed differences pertain to some structural factors. For strategic, but not for organizational institutionalization, we find some evidence that an expected higher level of environmental awareness among the local civil society is conducive.

This study investigates the causal effects of highlighting municipal climate protection leadership on citizens' pro-climate activities, as reflected by their stated willingness-to-pay to offset their carbon footprint (WTPO). It further examines whether the effects of receiving information about municipal climate protection leadership on citizens' WTPO vary by socio-demographic characteristics. The empirical analysis employs a survey implemented in 2021 among citizens in the metropolitan area of Grenoble (France), the recipient of the 2022 European Green Capital Award. The survey included a randomized experiment where about half the participants were informed about Grenoble’s climate protection performance and the city’s recognition as European Green Capital whereas the other half did not receive this information nudge. Results based on estimating Tobit models suggest that participants who received this information intend to pay about 25% more to offset their carbon footprint than participants who did not receive this information. The findings further imply that this effect is stronger for younger and for less affluent participants in the sample. By signaling their climate protection leadership, municipalities may encourage unengaged citizens to participate in climate protection activities and motivate those already involved to increase their efforts.

This study examines the relationship between political orientation and support of onshore wind energy, using demographically representative surveys of the population in France. Our micro-econometric analysis focuses on individuals with left- or right-wing populist views and highlights the importance of accounting for trust in government when estimating this relationship. Support for onshore wind energy tends to be lower on the right side of the political spectrum—especially on the far right—than on the left and center. The difference in support between voters of populist and traditional parties (on either side of the political spectrum) becomes more pronounced when trust in government is excluded from the econometric specification. Thus, studies omitting trust in government may lead to biased estimates of the relation between populist party affiliation and opposition to climate policies. Moreover, the relation between political orientation and support of onshore wind energy appears to be sensitive to the scale used to measure political orientation. Finally, we find no evidence that political orientation relates to support of solar energy, suggesting that the role of political orientation in public support differs across renewable energies

For more than two decades, the European Emissions Trading System (EU ETS), has regulated greenhouse gas emissions across various sectors, including energy, manufacturing, aviation, and maritime industries within the European Union (EU) and beyond. The trading of EU allowances (EUAs) allows emission targets to be met in a cost-efficient manner. This study examines internal trading, i.e., trading of allowances between companies belonging to the same National Ultimate Owner (NUO). Using data from the European Union Transaction Log, the ORBIS database, and the European Energy Exchange, we analyse company-specific internal trading patterns from 2005 to 2017. Supposing that internal trading results in lower transaction costs than external trading (e.g., through intermediaries and exchanges), our findings indicate the presence of barriers to internal trading: Only a small fraction of companies with internal trading opportunities engage in such activities, leaving most of the potential for internal trading untapped. According to the findings from panel-econometric analysis, the relation between internal trading and trading potential is not statistically significant, providing no evidence that companies prefer internal to external trading.They further suggest that internal trading is positively correlated with the number of companies belonging to the same NUO, the number of regulated installations, and with trading frequency, and negatively with allowance banking, for example. These findings remain robust across diverse alternative model specifications, sample compositions, and identification strategies, including quasi-experimental methods.

We examine the causal effect of comparative feedback (information on how an individual’s carbon footprint compares with others’ footprints) on costly mitigation efforts, considering beliefs about individuals’ own relative carbon footprints as a source of heterogeneity. Using a nationally representative survey experiment, we calculate respondents’ carbon footprints and elicit their beliefs about their relative carbon footprints via an incentivized task. A randomly selected subset of respondents then receives comparative feedback. We then measure mitigation efforts using an incentivized modified dictator game where respondents can purchase emission allowances. Our results show that two-thirds of the respondents exhibit optimistic bias, i.e., they underestimate their relative carbon footprints. While we find no effect of comparative feedback on average, the effect varies by respondents’ relative carbon footprints and direction of the bias. Respondents for whom comparative feedback conveys a positive signal of their prosociality reinforce their mitigation efforts, while respondents for whom comparative feedback conveys a negative signal of their prosociality do not change or may even reduce their mitigation efforts. These contrasting responses suggest a “divergence from the mean”, in contrast to the “regression towards the mean” commonly observed in studies on social norms and resource conservation.