How do the French perceive climate policies?

Based on a representative sample of 2.000 French people, this survey provides an overview of perceptions and support for the main climate measures. Concerned about climate change, the French offer a variety of support for these measures according to their perception of their effectiveness, their redistributive impact and their financial consequences for their own households. Several recommendations follow these findings, including setting up regular surveys, informing citizens, helping to adopt alternatives to fossil fuels, accelerating investment in low-carbon infrastructure, and earmarking of any new revenue linked to carbon taxation.

Attitudes towards climate

The vast majority of French people are concerned about climate change, but their support for the various possible policies to combat it varies. It is all the greater when they are perceived as environmentally efficient, socially just and inexpensive for their own household. Informing citizens about their properties significantly increases support.

• Finding 1. The French respondents are aware of the potentially disastrous consequences of climate change and recognize the need to fight against its progression, at individual and collective level.
• Finding 2. A significant proportion of French people think that climate policies are regressive and anticipate negative consequences for their household.
• Finding 3. Support is explained by perceptions of the environmental effectiveness of policies, their redistributive effects and their financial impact on the household. Informing about the properties of the measures can help to increase their support.

Support for various measures

Alongside the three perceptions highlighted above, support for climate measures depends heavily on the sources of funding (in the case of investments), the type of policy (regulation or tax), the use of revenue (in the case of a tax), as well as the availability of low-carbon substitutes (equipment and transport).

• Finding 4. Subsidies for the adoption and deployment of low-carbon technologies, public investment in low-carbon infrastructure, the obligation of thermal renovation accompanied by subsidies and the banning of polluting vehicles from city centers are supported by a majority of French people.
• Finding 5. Support for carbon pricing measures is significantly higher when revenues finance transfers to compensate vulnerable households or green investments.
• Finding 6. France is the country where the difference in support between those who use and who do not use a car is the greatest. The quality of the services and facilities available matters more than the size of the agglomeration of the place of residence.
• Finding 7. In addition to national climate measures, most of the French respondents support a global agreement to reduce emissions according to a key to the fair distribution of efforts.

Developing effective and fair climate policies

To understand citizens' considerations and concerns about climate policies, it is necessary to conduct regular surveys of household perceptions, concerns and expectations. Better information on the operation and effects of climate policies is needed.

• Recommendation 1. Regularly conduct surveys on the constraints weighing on households, on the understanding and acceptance of climate measures, and better integrate the expectations and concerns of citizens in the definition of policies.
• Recommendation 2. Better inform citizens about the operation and effects of climate policies. Consider entrusting this information mission to the High Council for the Climate by allocating resources commensurate with this new competence.

Investments and infrastructure to allow substitution towards low-carbon alternatives are essential and all the more urgent as the current rise in energy prices weighs heavily on households. Carbon pricing cannot be envisaged in the current context of sharply rising energy prices. It is also crucial to take into account requests for progressive measures, too often perceived as regressive and costly for the most vulnerable households.

• Recommendation 3. Sequence the implementation of climate policies: first promote the dissemination of low-carbon alternatives to protect households from price increases, before any increases in the price of carbon (planned at European level).
• Recommendation 4. Reinforce support mechanisms for the purchase of low-emission equipment, in particular for vulnerable and low-income households.
• Recommendation 5. Prioritize public investment in low-emission mobility infrastructure: public transport, rail network, cycle paths, charging stations for electric vehicles.
• Recommendation 6. Redistribute all or part of the revenue from carbon pricing and taxes on fossil fuels to compensate vulnerable households, in the form of lump-sum transfers.
• Recommendation 7. Commit to fully allocate the revenues from any new environmental tax, or the increases in revenue from existing environmental taxes, to the financing of a just energy transition.