A survey experimental study for stimulating individual action to combat climate change

We design an experiment to examine what kind of information can increase the acceptance of electricity tariffs that internalize the environmental cost of power generation and promote the expansion of renewable energy. We adopt four psychological and behavioral insights frequently dealt with in energy and environment-related literature. These are (i) political polarization (ii) internal locus of control (iii) social norm and (iv) external cost of energy use. Respondents are randomly assigned into one of the five groups: one control and four treatment groups, each with a sample size of 900. A control group is given no information, while each treatment group receives the following information: (i) the persistency of climate change policy in South Korea regardless of partisanship of past and present governments; (ii) the outcome of Montreal protocol, which mitigates the ozone depletion problem through international cooperation; (iii) efforts currently made by major Greenhouse gas emitting countries in the world as well as South Korea’s effort; (iv) the amount of total environmental cost arising from electricity generation and the actual amount of environmental cost that is currently being paid by electricity consumers. After receiving information, respondents are asked to express (i) their willingness-to-pay for environmental costs included in their electricity bill, (ii) their support for the green pricing program, and (iii) their preferred portion of renewable energy in the energy mix for power generation in 2050.