ESRA 2025 Preliminary Program
All time references are in CEST
Current methodological challenges and applications in environmental and climate research 3 |
| Session Organisers |
Professor Henning Best (University of Kaiserslautern-Landau)
Dr Christiane Bozoyan (LMU Munich)
Mrs Manuela Schmidt (University of Kaiserslautern-Landau)
Dr Claudia Schmiedeberg (LMU Munich)
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| Time | Wednesday 16 July, 11:00 - 12:30 |
| Room |
Ruppert Wit - 0.52 |
Climate change and the depletion of Earth’s natural resources are among the largest challenges humanity currently faces. Addressing them requires ambitious policies promoting technological innovation and influencing human behavior and interactions within socio-economic systems. However, there is a great need of large-scale behavioral data such as panel data and natural as well as survey experiments that enable causal analyses (Jenny & Betsch, 2022).
To advance research on the human dimension of climate change, we need a thorough understanding of public perceptions of climate policy and environmental behaviors, and how these relate to the individual and to structural constraints related to socio-economic positions. Methodological challenges include the measurement of environmental behavior and households’ carbon footprint, often skewed by self-reporting biases, social desirability, and lack of knowledge. Questions on public opinion and policy agreement are particularly susceptible to response bias due to climate skepticism and opposition to policies. At the same time, climate skepticism as well as protest behavior towards environmental policies may be hard to measure due to privacy concerns. Survey experiments are suited to measure evaluations of complex policies and vague or uncertain payoff structures.
Linking survey data with new data sources offers new perspectives for environmental research. For example, the addition of geospatial information or sensor data allows for the consideration of context effects, while administrative data can help to close data gaps and validate measurements. These approaches still pose methodological challenges in managing and analyzing linked data and questions of data protection, sensitivity, and privacy.
This session will showcase approaches to measuring environmental attitudes and behaviors and innovative designs using smartphones, sensor or other new data sources to enhance environmental survey data. We especially welcome studies that further develop methodological approaches and explore (interdisciplinary) substantive applications of survey methods in environmental research.
Keywords: environmental research, climate change, sustainability, data linkage, survey experiments
Papers
Attitude divisions over climate change and the climate transition in Germany
Dr Nils Teichler (University Bremen) - Presenting Author
Ms Clara Dilger (University Leipzig)
Studies show that the vast majority of the German public are concerned about climate change, but specific climate policies are often controversially debated. This study explores the interplay between climate awareness and concerns about the economic and social consequences of climate policies, examining its impact on social conflict and coalition dynamics related to Germany’s climate transition.
Using recent primary survey data from wave 2 (2022) of the German Social Cohesion Panel (SCP), a panel study by the Research Institute Social Cohesion (FGZ) in cooperation with the Socio-Economic Panel (SOEP), we analyze these dynamics. The SCP offers comprehensive indicators on attitudes toward climate change and policies, alongside extensive survey instruments measuring political orientation and attitudes towards migration, inequality, and other social issues. From a large sample of over 7,500 individuals, we apply a Latent Class Analysis (LCA) on 14 different attitudes toward climate change and the climate transition. This approach allows us to uncover latent response patterns at the intersection of climate awareness and concerns about the socio-economic consequences of the climate transition.
Our analysis identifies five distinct climate attitude profiles within the German population. Notably, 8% of the population exhibits low climate awareness while expressing high concern about the socio-economic costs of the transition. Another segment, comprising 17%, is highly aware of climate change and strongly supports climate protection but is equally concerned about its socio-economic implications. A third group, making up 22%, demonstrates the highest climate awareness and policy support while remaining unconcerned about socio-economic consequences. We observe societal divisions between climate segments, shaped by differences in age, education, and income. Our analysis of voting intentions and political orientation indicates that the segments with the highest and lowest levels of climate awareness closely mirror the ideological divide between AfD and Green voters.
Advancing Research on Pro Environmental Attitudes by Exploring Time-Variant Predictors with Three-Level Multilevel Models Covering the Period from 1993 to 2020.
Mr Matthias Penker (University of Graz) - Presenting Author
Professor Markus Hadler (University of Graz)
Dr Anja Eder (University of Graz)
Since the Rio Conference in 1992 and the adoption of the Framework Convention on Climate Change, public discourse on environmental issues, particularly climate change, has grown significantly. Repeatedly fielded questionnaire modules in programs such as the International Social Survey Program (ISSP) have concurrently gathered public opinion on these topics, over multiple waves, enabling researchers to link macro-level data—such as national CO2 emissions and temperature trends—with individual respondents' views and attitudes.
Leveraging specific specifications of three-level multilevel models, these Comparative Longitudinal Survey Datasets (CLSD) allow researchers to examine cross-sectional relationships between countries and longitudinal dynamics within countries. Additionally, they provide new opportunities to explore interactions across and within multiple societal levels. Despite the growing availability of CLSD, most international comparative studies continue to focus predominantly on (cross-level) interactions involving time-invariant country characteristics and individual-level predictors. Interactions that incorporate time-variant predictors remain underexplored, even though they offer significant potential for testing dynamic aspects of macro-level theories and models.
This presentation highlights the variety of interactions that can be analysed using three-level models applied to CLSD. Using empirical examples based on 30 years of data from 37 countries in the ISSP Environment Module and contextual data on environmental and political characteristics derived from sources such as New Climate Data Store (CDS), Quality of Government database, UNEP etc. we demonstrate the analytical potential of interactions involving time-variant predictors. Additionally, we discuss the methodological challenges associated with their implementation.
Sharing the road: Political ideologies as drivers of public transport infrastructure support
Dr Joanna Syrda (University of Bath) - Presenting Author
Urgently needed policy attempts at reducing emissions are often met with divided support, arguably along political lines. While an effective way forward requires shared attitudes and cooperation, a political polarization around it has been observed in many countries, including the UK.
Using a representative sample of British citizens (N= 2,515), this research is the first to examine if and to what degree welfarism, political orientation, and party preference contribute to support for transport infrastructure policy directions: (a) New cycle lanes in roads, (b) Local council spending more money to improve existing public transport, although this may mean spending less on other council services, (c) Reserving parking spaces for electric car charging points, (d) Building carparks to introduce more park and ride routes, (e) Narrowing roads to widen pavements, and (f) Closing roads to create pedestrian high streets.
I find that left-right political orientation is indeed associated with support for transport initiatives, but it is not the key attitudinal predictor. While left-leaning individuals are more likely to support the listed transport initiatives, this research is the first to find that it is the welfarist orientation that has highest relative importance in half of the cases, or second highest after political party preference in the other half. This highly significant positive relationship between support for welfare state and the analyzed transport initiatives is positively moderated by interest in politics and closeness to a political party.
Socio-environmental Crises and Cognitive Ageing. Comparing the Impacts of Climate Change and the COVID-19 Pandemic on Later Life Cognitive Functioning
Dr Ariane Bertogg (University of Konstanz) - Presenting Author
Professor Martina Brandt (TU Dortmund)
Socio-environmental crises, induced by climate change or the COVID-19 pandemic, significantly impact individual health especially at older ages. While the cardiovascular risks (e.g., heat strokes) posed by climate change and the mental health consequences of the COVID-19 lockdowns have been widely studied, their differential impacts on cognitive functioning in later life remains less understood. Ample studies document the impact that the social environment at the meso- (social relations, stress, and stimulation at the workplace) and macro-levels (preventive health care, opportunities for learning and exercising, environmental toxins) is related to the speed and scope of cognitive decline. Yet, these mechanisms have not been addressed in the context of socio-environmental crises.
Our study explores the "cognitive impact" of socio-environmental crises by addressing four: questions: (1) How can we measure the impact of socio-environmental crises? (2) How are summer temperatures linked to cognitive change over a two-year period? (3) Did cognitive decline accelerate between the pre-pandemic to the post-lockdown phase compared to baseline cognitive changes? (4) Are these cognitive impacts different across social groups?
Using longitudinal data from the Survey of Health, Ageing and Retirement in Europe (SHARE), we analyze changes in memory and verbal fluency among adults aged 50+ in Germany using Random effects change score analysis. Results show that COVID-19-related memory decline is significantly greater than baseline decline rates occurring over a time period of similar length. Higher average summer temperatures are associated with faster decline in memory and verbal fluency, while higher peak summer temperatures correlate with improved verbal fluency over two years. No differences in the impact of these two crises were found across genders, educational and income groups, or urban-rural residency. However, the oldest individuals were more vulnerable to these crises’ cognitive impacts.
