Do Climate Disasters Shift Public Priorities? : Climate Salience in Europe

Sammanfattning

Natural disasters are becoming more frequent and severe due to climate change. Experiencing these disasters may influence attitudes toward climate change by making its risks feel more immediate and real. This has prompted growing research on how personal or local exposure to a climate-related disaster shapes attitudes. However, less is known about how disasters influence public opinion through media coverage, even though this indirect form of experience may affect far more people. Furthermore, previous research on whether climate- related disasters influence attitudes has produced mixed findings, likely in part because of differences in the types of disasters examined, as theory suggests the effect depends on disaster characteristics. This thesis contributes to the literature by analysing public opinion data from 34 European countries between 2012 and 2019 to investigate how climate-related disasters occurring within an individual’s country affect climate change salience. It also explores whether the disaster type matters by comparing the effects of four distinct types. The results provide robust evidence that climate disasters raise the perceived importance of climate change, although the increase is temporary and modest. In addition, the findings indicate that the type of disaster plays a significant role in shaping this effect.