One of the stumbling blocks to curbing greenhouse gas emissions in the United States is that a large fraction of the American public is skeptical about the proposition of human-induced climate change. Research by RFF scholars conducted with colleagues from China and Sweden examined how attitudes on the issue compare across the three countries. In addition to the issues presented below, the research team also looked at respondents’ willingness-topay (WTP) to avoid the consequences of global temperature increases, and found that Swedes were willing to pay the most and Chinese the least. When measured as a share of income, however, the Chinese and U.S. WTP were comparable.
