Who is supposed to save the planet?

Abstract

Individual change and systemic change are both important to combat climate change. Given that citizen’s concerns dictate how climate policies should be presented, this should be included in research. Therefore, this research will provide an answer to the question: How does fear of climate change influences the perception of Dutch citizens on whether they are responsible or the government is responsible for combatting climate change? This will be done by performing a T-test, a simple regression analysis and a multiple regression analysis with the variables 1) fear, 2) individual responsibility and 3) government responsibility. The results show that fear is positively related to individual responsibility and negatively related to government responsibility. This remains the same when direct fear and indirect fear are separated, with a stronger effect for direct fear. That being said, the differences are minor. Based on these findings, I advise policymakers to enable the Dutch to make personal changes to combat climate change and focus on the direct impact of climate change. For example, by making organic food available at supermarkets and placing second-hand shops in local shopping centres, but also by reporting on the effect of these acts. In addition, the minor differences found indicate that restoring trust in the government might change preferences towards systemic change.