Climate justice orientation is linked to preferences for decarbonisation policy design

Abstract Policy acceptance is one of the biggest hurdles to climate action and is heavily driven by people's perceptions of fairness. This study investigates which distributive justice principles people prefer and whether these distributive preferences are linked to policy preferences along three policy characteristics: stringency, redistribution, and instrument type. Utilising an online survey experiment (N = 2,230), we assess support for four distributive justice principles relevant to the decarbonisation context and identify groups with distinct justice orientations. We then test whether climate justice orientation is associated with policy preferences, using data from two choice experiments. Our results show that climate justice orientation is associated with distinct policy preferences, with most individuals supporting a combination of principles and being sensitive to redistribution in policy design. This study provides further evidence on the widely noted observation that justice is a key aspect in the public's policy assessment by decomposing justice into climate justice orientation. We suggest this justice orientation should be considered in both policy-making and policy-driven research.