Yale Program on Climate Change Communication

We are pleased to announce the publication of a new article, “Understanding the policy features that affect Indians’ support for India’s 2070 net-zero goal” in the journal Climatic Change.

In 2021, the Indian government announced the goal of net-zero carbon emissions in India by 2070. To achieve that goal, Indian policymakers need to consider the trade-offs between different climate and development priorities. In this study, we investigate the policy features that affect Indian support for the net-zero goal, using a conjoint experiment (N = 1,500) conducted in Hindi and English, with sample quotas for sex, age, and urbanicity. A conjoint experiment asks respondents to choose between different policy packages in order to measure how each specific feature affects support. Specifically, we vary a number of potential policy features, including economic programs, allocation of funds collected via coal taxes, policies to mitigate pollution, who participates in the policy-making process, and adaptation policy. An example choice is shown below.

We find that the inclusion of policy features that address pollution, such as investment in solar and wind energy and banning coal plants and polluting vehicles, strongly increase public support. Further, including a job guarantee for those who lose jobs in the coal industry strongly increases support for the net-zero goal. Adaptation measures also increase support, including efforts to protect critical infrastructure and protect the most vulnerable. When it comes to the use of coal tax revenues, Indians prefer investing in wind and solar energy over redistribution of the funds to poorer Indians. The figure below shows the effect of various policy features on respondents’ likelihood of selecting that feature, compared to the baseline of existing policy.

We also find that participation policy—or who participates in the decision-making process—does not increase support. While it is not clear why, awareness of procedural justice concerns related to climate policies may not be as salient, compared to the other policy features we tested. On all other policy features, Indians prefer strong pro-climate policies to reach the 2070 goal, with some features increasing support by as much as 9 percentage points.

Finally, we find that more educated and higher caste Indians are more likely to support investing in wind and solar and support a job guarantee for displaced coal workers than their less educated and lower caste counterparts. More educated Indians are more likely to be aware of climate policy trade-offs and sensitive to their implications for the economy and jobs. We find no such differences by income and between respondents in coal-dependent and non-coal-dependent states. 

Overall, our results tell a clear story: Indians strongly support India’s 2070 net-zero goal, and policies that address pollution, increase job security, and help India adapt to the changing climate increase this support.

The full article with many other results is available here to those with a subscription to Climatic Change. If you would like to request a copy of the published paper, please send an email to climatechange@yale.edu with the subject line: Request India 2070 net-zero paper. Or, a public version is available here. View Data Tables for accessibility.