Volume 6: Innovative Solutions for Energy Transitions: Part V

More for God-Less for Climate Association of Religiosity with Stringency of Climate Change Policies Swati Sharma, James Ang

Abstract

commitments vary considerably among countries. This study explores the cross-country difference in climate change policy stringency and its association with respective cultural differences. Particularly, we hypothesize that more religious countries incline to have lesser stringent climate change policies. Our empirical evidence using ordinary least square estimates provide support for this supposition. Estimates using instrumental variables and further evidence from individual-level analysis with a panel data of up-to 220758 observations over the past three decades confirm our main findings. The results hold up to a bunch of robustness checks. Our findings may be of relevance to policymakers looking to design climate change policy reforms.

Keywords climate change policy, religiosity, clean energy, climate change and religion, disease prevalence