Data for: Public preferences on policies for climate, local pollution, and health - a survey in seven large Global South countries

Richard T. Carson - University of California, San Diego

Jiajun Lu - Zhejiang University

Emily A. Khossravi - Harvard University

Gunnar Köhlin - University of Gothenburg

Erik Sterner - University of Gothenburg, University of Gothenburg

Thomas Sterner - University of Gothenburg

Dale Whittington - University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill

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The current dataset is a subset of a large data collection based on a purpose-built survey conducted in seven middle-income countries in the Global South: Chile, Colombia, India, Kenya, Nigeria, Tanzania, South Africa and Vietnam. The purpose of the collected variables in the present dataset aims to understanding public preferences as a critical way to any effort to reduce greenhouse gas emissions. There are many studies of public preferences regarding climate change in the Global North. However, survey work in low and middle-income countries is limited. Survey work facilitating cross-country comparisons not using the major omnibus surveys is relatively rare.
We designed the Environment for Development (EfD) Seven-country Global South Climate Survey (the EfD Survey) which collected information on respondents’ knowledge about climate change, the information sources that respondents rely on, and opinions on climate policy. The EfD survey contains a battery of well-known climate knowledge questions and questions concerning the attention to and degree of trust in various sources for climate information. Respondents faced several ranking tasks using a best-worst elicitation format. This approach offers greater robustness to cultural differences in how questions are answered than the Likert-scale questions commonly asked in omnibus surveys. We examine: (a) priorities for spending in thirteen policy areas including climate and COVID-19, (b) how respiratory diseases due to air pollution rank relative to six other health problems, (c) agreement with ten statements characterizing various aspects of climate policies, and (d) prioritization of uses for carbon tax revenue. The company YouGov collected data for the EfD Survey in 2023 from 8400 respondents, 1200 in each country. It supplements an earlier survey wave (administered a year earlier) that focused on COVID-19. Respondents were drawn from YouGov’s online panels. During the COVID-19 pandemic almost all surveys were conducted online. This has advantages and disadvantages. Online survey administration reduces costs and data collection times and allows for experimental designs assigning different survey stimuli. With substantial incentive payments, high response rates within the sampling frame are achievable and such incentivized respondents are hopefully motivated to carefully answer the questions posed. The main disadvantage is that the sampling frame is comprised of the internet-enabled portion of the population in each country (e.g., with computers, mobile phones, and tablets). This sample systematically underrepresents those with lower incomes and living in rural areas. This large segment of the population is, however, of considerable interest in its own right due to its exposure to online media and outsized influence on public opinion.
The data includes respondents’ preferences for climate change mitigation policies and competing policy issues like health. The data also includes questions such as how respondents think revenues from carbon taxes should be used. The outcome provide important information for policymakers to understand, evaluate, and shape national climate policies. It is worth noting that the data from Tanzania is only present in Wave 1 and that the data from Chile is only present in Wave 2. Show less..