Extreme weather event attribution predicts climate policy support across the world

Viktoria Cologna, Simona Meiler, Chahan M. Kropf, Samuel Lüthi, Niels G. Mede, David Niklaus Bresch, Oscar Zanetti Lecuona, Sebastian Berger, John C. Besley, Cameron A. Brick

94 more authors

Marina Joubert, Edward Wile Maibach, Sabina Mihelj, Наоми Орескес, Mike Steffen Schäfer, Sander van der Linden, Nor Izzatina Abdul Aziz, Suleiman Abiodun Abdulsalam, Nurulaini Abu Shamsi, Balazs Aczel, Indro Adinugroho, Eleonora Alabrese, Alaa Aldoh, Mark Alfano, Innocent Mbulli Ali, Mohammed Alsobay, R. Michael Alvarez, Tabitha Amollo, Patrick Ansah, Denisa Apriliawati, Flávio Azevedo, Ani Bajrami, Ronita Bardhan, Keagile Bati, Eri Bertsou, Rahul Bhui, Olga Białobrzeska, Michal Bilewicz, Ayoub Bouguettaya, Katherine Breeden, Amélie Bret, Ondrej Buchel, Pablo Cabrera Alvarez, Federica Cagnoli, André Calero Valdez, Timothy Callaghan, Rizza Kaye Cases, Sami Çoksan, Gabriela Czarnek, Ramit Debnath, Sylvain Delouvée, Lucia Di Stefano, Celia Diaz-Catalàn, Kimberly C. Doell, Simone Dohle, Karen M. Douglas, Charlotte Dries, Dmitrii Dubrov, Małgorzata Dzimińska, Ullrich K. H. Ecker, Christian T. Elbaek, Mahmoud Elsherif, Benjamin Enke, Matthew Facciani, Antoinette Mary Fage-Butler, Zaki Faisal, Xiaoli Fan, Christina Farhart, Christoph Feldhaus, Marinus Ferreira, Stefan Feuerriegel, Helen Fischer, Jana Freundt, Malte Friese, Albina Gallyamova, Patricia Garrido‐Vásquez, Mauricio E. Garrido Vásquez, Olivier Genschow, Omid Ghasemi, Theofilos Gkinopoulos, Jamie L. Gloor, Ellen W. Goddard, Claudia González Brambila, Hazel Gordon, Dmitry Grigoryev, Lars Guenther, Håvard Haarstad, Dana Harari, Przemysław G. Hensel, Alma Cristal Hernández-Mondragón, Atar Herziger, Guanxiong Huang, Markus Huff, Mairéad Hurley, Nygmet Ibadildin, Mohammad Tarikul Islam, Tao Jin, Charlotte A. Jones, Sebastian Jungkunz, Dominika Jurgiel, Celia Díaz‐Catalán, Md. Zaki Faisal, Marinus Ferreira, Guanxiong Huang

2025

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DOI 10.1038/s41558-025-02372-4
Data confidence 85 high
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Abstract

Abstract Extreme weather events are becoming more frequent and intense due to climate change. Yet, little is known about the relationship between exposure to extreme events, subjective attribution of these events to climate change, and climate policy support, especially in the Global South. Combining large-scale natural and social science data from 68 countries ( N = 71,922), we develop a measure of exposed population to extreme weather events and investigate whether exposure to extreme weather and subjective attribution of extreme weather to climate change predict climate policy support. We find that most people support climate policies and link extreme weather events to climate change. Subjective attribution of extreme weather was positively associated with policy support for five widely discussed climate policies. However, exposure to most types of extreme weather event did not predict policy support. Overall, these results suggest that subjective attribution could facilitate climate policy support.