Public support for eco-social policies: Insights from focus group studies in Germany and Italy
This chapter explores public support for eco-social policies in the context of the climate crisis. These policies play an essential role for a just transition, that is, a fair distribution of costs and benefits associated with achieving carbon neutrality. However, adopting eco-social policies can face various challenges, including social legitimacy issues. Current research investigating public support for eco-social policies mainly draws on survey data on general climate and social policies. This tells little about people’s opinions on specific eco-social policies and how they reason their views. Addressing this research gap, the chapter explores two research questions: 1) how public perceptions of environmental and social policies relate to support for specific integrated eco-social policies and trade-off scenarios, and 2) how people justify their positions and discuss them in the broader context of climate change, the energy transition and social injustice. Analysing survey and discussion data from focus groups in Germany and Italy, the findings reveal that while general attitudes towards climate and social policies can inform views on specific eco-social policy scenarios, various factors such as socio-economic status and perceptions of state responsibility also play significant roles.
