Public perceptions of climate change

Public perceptions of climate change: A "willingness to pay" assessment

Richard A. Berk and Robert G. Fovell
Climate Change, 41, 413-446.

Abstract

Policy discussions about the tradeoffs surrounding climate change often require that monetary value be placed on various climate "assets". Yet, there is no agreement within either the policy or scientific community about how best to proceed. In this paper, we report results from a factorial survey in which respondents' willingness to pay is linked to characteristics of hypothetical climate change scenarios. The survey instrument contains a number of innovations including climate change scenarios that are empirically based and methods to consider different sources of monetary value. The results show that the public can provide estimates of value that vary sensibly depending on kinds of climate change evaluated, but that they seem unable to effectively separate the different sources of that value.