Frings Nina L, Helm Jessica F, Hahnel Ulf J J
Faculty of Psychology, University of Basel, Basel, Switzerland.
Swiss Center for Affective Sciences, University of Geneva, Geneva, Switzerland.
Commun Earth Environ. 2024;5(1):544. doi: 10.1038/s43247-024-01719-7. Epub 2024 Sep 30.
The energy crisis reshaped energy politics, resulted in energy price surges, increased energy capacity, and large-scale energy-saving campaigns. While an energy demand reduction was observed in Europe, little is known about how the crisis impacted citizens' climate-relevant judgment and decisions. Here we report a preregistered two-wave cross-national study ( = 1040) spanning the winter of 2022/2023 to investigate how support for renewable energy policies, energy literacy, and energy-efficient product choices developed as this crisis unfolded. We couple longitudinal experimental data with real-world energy price data. This natural experiment indicates that energy-efficiency preferences were impacted by the salience of the crisis and real-world price signals. Changes in energy literacy were contingent on the numerical abilities of participants, suggesting that the crisis increased knowledge gaps between different groups in society. Support for renewable energy policies, and prioritization of key policy attributes, remained stable in Germany and Switzerland despite shifts in public attention and uncertainty.
能源危机重塑了能源政治格局，导致能源价格飙升，能源产能增加，并引发了大规模的节能运动。虽然欧洲的能源需求有所减少，但对于这场危机如何影响公民与气候相关的判断和决策，我们却知之甚少。在此，我们报告一项预先注册的两波次跨国研究（n = 1040），该研究跨越2022/2023年冬季，旨在调查随着这场危机的展开，对可再生能源政策的支持、能源素养以及节能产品选择是如何发展变化的。我们将纵向实验数据与实际能源价格数据相结合。这项自然实验表明，能源效率偏好受到危机的显著程度和实际价格信号的影响。能源素养的变化取决于参与者的数字能力，这表明危机加剧了社会不同群体之间的知识差距。尽管公众关注度和不确定性发生了变化，但德国和瑞士对可再生能源政策的支持以及关键政策属性的优先级仍保持稳定。
