Populist Opposition to Climate Change Policies: The Role of Policy Type and Target

Do populist citizens oppose some climate change policies more than others and if so, why? While existing research has found populist attitudes as a driver of climate scepticism as well as for diffuse opposition towards climate policies, the underlying factors shaping populist’s aversion towards concrete climate change policies remain unclear. Differentiating climate change policies based on policy-type and their policy-target, we argue that populist citizens substantially reject climate policies more if they are “push” measures and target “the people”. We test these arguments by utilizing Austrian panel data from 2020 to 2021. We contribute to the existing literature by accounting for a climate policy’s specific design and thus providing more contrasting insights in the opposition of climate policy by populist citizens.