Public Support for Renewable Energy: Do Values Matter?

Abstract

<p>The overarching aim of this thesis was to determine the extent to which policy-related price increases undermine or foster public support for the proposed 50% Renewable Energy Target (50% RET), and to identify psychological (personal values, climate change concern, and political orientation) and contextual (household income) factors that may moderate people’s responses to policy-related price rises. The three main research questions were: (1) Are projected policy-related electricity price increases related to public support for the proposed 50% (RET)? (2) Do personal values interact with policy-related electricity price to shape public support for the proposed 50% (RET)? and (3) Do individual attributes (i.e., climate change concern, political orientation, and household income) interact with policyrelated electricity price to shape public support for the proposed 50% (RET)? In this thesis, I present three empirical studies to address these questions.</p> <p>Chapter 1 presents an overview of a range of topics that contribute to the current knowledge of energy source and policy support, with a focus on personal values. It argues that projected flow-on costs of electricity may play an important part in energy policy support, but individual attributes such as climate change concern and personal values are also important. It reviews traditional approaches to understanding personal values in this decision context and introduces a novel typology approach to understanding the relationship between personal values and policy support. Overall, this chapter advocates the need to consider interactions between individual attributes and the impacts of the policy on electricity costs, and the explanatory role of holistic values-based profiles that occur within voting citizens. </p> <p>Chapter 2 presents an empirical study (Study 1; Phillips et al., 2019) that applied a multi-level perspective to investigate within-subject relationships between the projected impacts on electricity prices and public support for a proposed 50% RET. Personal values (<i>self-enhancement</i> and <i>self-transcendence</i>) were examined as between-subject moderators of this relationship. Australians (<i>N = </i>404) rated their support for a 50% RET at eight projected flow-on increases in their quarterly electricity bills. This study indicated that: (1) support for the 50% RET fell as the projected price of electricity increased, and (2) although participants with low <i>self-enhancement</i> and high <i>self-transcendence</i> values were most supportive of the policy, these value-based differences disappeared as projected prices increased. These results indicate that personal values likely play an important role in determining support for renewable energy policies, but their relevance may diminish as the projected flow-on costs to consumers linked to such policies increase. </p> <p>Chapter 3 is an empirical study (Study 2) that built upon Chapter 2 with a typology approach to personal values. Specifically, it examined climate change beliefs and energy source preferences in relation to homogenous values-based profile group membership. Australians (<i>N = </i>633) completed the Personal Values Questionnaire (Schwartz, 2017) and rated their climate change belief, climate change concern, specific energy source preferences, and support for the 50% RET. A latent profile analysis identified four distinct homogenous values-based profiles: <i>Free-Spirits</i> (12%), <i>Power-Achievers</i> (28%), <i>Traditionalists</i> (16%), and <i>Normatives</i> (44%). A multivariate analysis of variance indicated that the <i>Free-Spirits</i> group expressed significantly greater concern about climate change, stronger beliefs in the reality of anthropogenic climate change, and perceived more immediacy of its effects than the <i>Power-Achiever</i> and <i>Traditionalist</i> groups. <i>Free-Spirits</i> also expressed stronger preferences for solar energy and weaker preferences for coal than <i>Power-Achievers</i>, and greater support for the 50% RET than the <i>Power-Achiever</i> and <i>Traditionalist</i> groups. These results indicate that a values-based typology approach may be useful to determine holistic person-centred motivation profiles that link to climate change belief and concern, energy preferences, and policy support.</p> <p>Chapter 4 is another empirical study (Study 3) that built upon Chapter 2. It further investigated the relationship between projected electricity prices and public support for the 50% RET by examining three personal attributes (household income, political orientation, and climate change concern) as moderating variables. Australians (<i>N = </i>633) rated their support for the 50% RET at one of five projected flow-on increases in electricity price. Moderated regression analysis indicated that (1) support for the 50% RET fell as the projected price of electricity increased, and (2) although high household income and high climate change concern predicted higher support for the policy, the effect of projected price increases on policy support did not vary according to any of the three examined personal attributes. These results indicate that sensitivity to the projected flow-on cost of the 50% RET remains consistent regardless of income, political orientation, and climate change concern.</p> <p>Chapter 5, the General Discussion, provides a summary of the key conclusions from the empirical studies. In sum, this thesis provides the first evidence that public support for a proposed renewable energy policy in Australia is associated with the projected impact of the policy on electricity prices, and this relationship remains quite consistent across a range of psychological and contextual characteristics. A typology of personal values provides the first evidence that membership of homogenous values-profile groups is associated with climate change belief and concern, preference for different energy sources, and renewable energy policy support. Implications for policy design and future research on the complex associations between individual attributes and clean energy policy support are discussed. Overall, this thesis demonstrates that policymakers need to consider the effects of proposed renewable energy policy changes on consumer’s electricity prices, since Australians are not prepared to pay much more for renewable energy, irrespective of their personal values or other personal attributes.</p>