January 13, 2025
SCARP Assistant Professor Holly Caggiano led a report (now published) by Climate & Community Institute on support for fossil fuel phase out in the US, and has discovered some amazing international implications since.
Caggiano explains,
Much of my research focuses on how new technology, like renewable energy, can help us mitigate climate change. To avert catastrophic climate impacts, though, we cannot just continue to add more clean energy to the grid without also winding down existing fossil fuel production.
The report, Voters Support Phasing Out Fossil Fuel Extraction
by Mark Paul, Holly Caggiano and Emily Grubert
demonstrates widespread support for policies to curtail the extraction of fossil fuels.
The majority of respondents support ending fossil fuel production subsidies (54.1% in support, versus 22.7% who oppose) and a phase out of new fossil fuel production (50.9% in support, versus 26.8% who oppose).
"Though many politicians believe that halting existing or new fossil fuel production is politically unpopular, there is surprisingly limited data to back this claim. To better understand how the general public views policies aimed at phasing out fossil fuel production, we conducted a nationally representative survey."
The authors were happy to have gained these insights, but with some serendipity, the proverbial plot thickened:
Genevieve Guenther (an expert in climate communication, the founding director of End Climate Silence, and affiliate faculty at The New School) commented on Bluesky, "So much for the myth that climate change is merely an ‘elite’ preoccupation of the affluent, college-educated, dare I say ‘woke’ voter”. Caggiano considers this is a great takeaway:
Our results show how broadly popular these policies are across income-brackets. Poorer communities experience the brunt of negative health and environmental impacts associated with proximity to oil and gas refineries and extraction sites.
Read Holly Caggiano's full report
About Holly Caggiano
Caggiano’s research explores social dimensions of the renewable energy transition in the US and Canada. She is interested in how diverse stakeholder groups form coalitions to advocate for environmental change. This work connects patterns across decision-making scales, exploring the ways individual decision-making influences collective action and how collective action disrupts existing relations of power.
Drawing from her interdisciplinary social science background, Caggiano’s work critically evaluates both top-down and bottom-up approaches that aim to advance equitable climate change mitigation & adaptation efforts.
Her dissertation research explored social-behavioral drivers of household resource consumption at the food-energy-water nexus.