Energy transformation and attitudes towards environmental regulation in a comparative perspective

Different welfare regimes embark on different pathways to establish ecological sustainability and to reconcile environmental issues with economic prosperity and social needs. Thus, the challenges and opportunities of transforming society towards a sustainable energy production vary among welfare types. This paper explores whether these differences are reflected a) in public attitudes towards the role of the government in promoting environmental protection, b) in the trust in business and science to find technological solutions of environmental problems and c) in the preferences about how to distribute environmental costs among the poor and the rich. Comparative welfare theory suggests that social-democratic welfare states are more likely to reconcile ecological, technological and social challenges which would then lead to the hypothesis that attitudes in these countries are most positive towards state regulations, the use of innovative technology and a fair distribution of costs. Contrarily, people in liberal, market-oriented welfare states can be expected to express more skepticism about state regulation and to prefer market-based solutions. These hypotheses are tested empirically with data from the International Social Survey Program which covers more than 20 countries from different welfare regimes. Multi-level analyses are applied to estimate the effect of the welfare regime on environmental regulation attitudes. The results contribute to a better understanding of the different ways how countries deal with political challenges such as sustainable development and energy transformation.