{"id":14327,"date":"2016-08-05T13:36:49","date_gmt":"2016-08-05T18:36:49","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/college.unc.edu\/?p=14327"},"modified":"2024-07-02T16:28:47","modified_gmt":"2024-07-02T16:28:47","slug":"voters-climate-change","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/collegearchive.unc.edu\/?p=14327","title":{"rendered":"African voters show lack of support for climate change policies"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"Ballots
Ballots being counted in the 2014 Malawian presidential and parliamentary elections.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Elected officials in Africa who advocate for adoption of climate change policies may actually lose voter support, according to new research by public policy scholars at UNC-Chapel Hill and Harvard University.<\/p>\n

The research is published in the August 2016 issue of Environmental Science and Policy.<\/em><\/p>\n

Brigitte Zimmerman, an assistant professor of public policy in UNC\u2019s College of Arts and Sciences, and Nick Obradovich,<\/a> a postdoctoral fellow at the Belfer Center at Harvard\u2019s John. F. Kennedy School of Government, conducted interviews with elected officials and party representatives in Malawi and South Africa. They also ran a survey-based experiment during the 2014 Malawian election and followed that up with a cross-national survey experiment.<\/p>\n

\"Electoral
Electoral officials wait to check in voters.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

One Malawian Parliament member said: \u201cMost people in Malawi don\u2019t know much about climate change. If you talk of climate change, you are guaranteed to lose votes.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cAfrica is the continent most dramatically affected by climate change and therefore most in need of such resources,\u201d Zimmerman said. \u201cBut we found that politicians see investing in climate change policy as an imprudent political strategy.\u201d<\/p>\n

Why is this so? Obradovich offers a possible answer.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt is likely a combination of both a lack of knowledge on the part of voters about the probable costs of climate change, coupled with the reality that there are far more pressing issues that voters want to see addressed,\u201d he said. \u201cWhen people lack food, water, sanitation, adequate housing, health care and more, they aren\u2019t terribly concerned about what might happen decades down the line. Short-term needs eclipse future considerations.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"Police
Police monitor the voting.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

By 2020, The United Nations Green Climate Fund intends to provide tens of billions of dollars per year to African nations to support climate adaptation and mitigation policies. But Zimmerman and Obradovich argue that the current approach tends to be \u201ctop down\u201d in nature, with the international community determining many policy choices without assessing the domestic feasibility of implementation.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe results suggest the importance of bringing domestic politicians and local officials in developing nations to the global discussion table,\u201d Zimmerman said.<\/p>\n

The research was supported by the National Science Foundation and the Center for Effective Global Action.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

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