Concern about climate change, individual economic conditions and environment prioritization in Latin America

Abstract

Latin American citizens are more concerned about the consequences of climate change than citizens of any other region in the world. However, this concern does not always lead to prioritizing the environment over economic growth. This paper argues that individuals’ economic constraints moderate the relationship between their beliefs about the seriousness of climate change and their preferences with respect to the dilemma between prioritizing the environment or economic growth. The analyses of 2016 Americas Barometer (Lapop) surveys in 18 Latin American countries, with hierarchical linear models and generalized structural equations, show that the level of concern about climate change has a significant positive effect on the prioritization of the environment among individuals with above-average wealth and a negative effect among individuals with below-average wealth. This work makes two contributions. First, the study analyzes the conditional effect of concern about climate change on environment prioritization depending on individual economic constraints; and secondly, it contributes to scholarship about environmental attitudes in Latin America.

environmental attitudes; concern about climate change; environment prioritization; economic constraints; hierarchical linear models; Latin America