Fear of COVID-19 reinforces climate change beliefs. Evidence from 28 European countries.

The long-term nature of climate policy measures requires stable social legitimacy, which other types of crises may jeopardize. This article examines the impact of the COVID-19 fear on climate change beliefs based on an autumn 2020 population survey in the Member States of the European Union and the United Kingdom. The results show that deep COVID-19 concerns increase climate change concerns, awareness, and perceived negative impacts of climate change. These effects are more robust among the lower educated Europeans. On the country level, strict governmental measures are also linked to deep climate change concerns. In contrast to the experience following the 2008 recession, the findings show that a secondary crisis can positively impact climate attitudes, which is a promising result for policy actions. • Discovers links between COVID-19 concerns and climate change attitudes. • Based on a large-scale survey in the Member States of the EU and the UK. • COVID-19 concerns increase fear of climate change, awareness, and perceived impacts. • No signs of the "finite pool of worry" hypothesis. • The secondary COVID-19 crisis offers a promising ground for climate change policies. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

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