Public support for renewable energy

This study created a typology of participants based on their personal values and investigated whether climate change beliefs, climate change concern, energy preferences, and support for a 50% renewable energy target (RET) vary as a function of values-type. Australian residents (N = 633) completed Schwartz’s (2017) Personal Values Questionnaire (PVQ-RR) and rated their climate change beliefs, concern about climate change, energy source preferences, and 50% RET support. Latent profile analysis identified four values-based segments based on participants’ PVQ-RR scores: Free-Spirits (12%), Power-Achievers (28%), Traditionalists (16%), and Normatives (44%). Multivariate analysis of variance indicated that the Free-Spirits group expressed stronger belief in anthropogenic climate change and greater climate change concern than the Power-Achiever and Traditionalist groups. Free-Spirits also expressed stronger preferences for solar energy and weaker preferences for coal than Power-Achievers, and greater support for the 50% RET than the Power-Achiever and Traditionalist groups. These results indicate that a values-based typology may be useful to understand the roots of climate change concern and energy preferences, as well as how to best engage with each segment within the typology.