Carbon inequality drives support for green taxation without eroding individual responsibility and behavioral intentions

Mitigating climate change requires individual behavioral changes and robust support for green policies. However, significant carbon inequality — where wealthier individuals have disproportionately larger carbon footprints — potentially poses a challenge to building broad-based demands for meaningful climate change mitigation. High emissions by the wealthiest in society may dampen the general public's perception of responsibility and support for policies necessary for stringent climate change mitigation. For this reason, we investigate how information about unequal carbon emissions within countries affects public support for climate mitigation efforts through a survey experiment (N = 1,110) on a representative sample of US respondents, providing information about the distribution of carbon emissions. Results show that exposure to this information increases support for stringent climate policies, particularly those targeting wealthy individuals. Notably, respondents perceive wealthier individuals as more responsible for climate change, without diminishing their own sense of responsibility for reducing pro-environmental behaviors. These findings suggest that making carbon inequality more salient can enhance broad-based support for climate policies without compromising individual engagement, offering insights into strategies for facilitating the green transition.