Garrecht, Carola; Christenson, Nina; Gericke, Niklas; Haglund, Jesper; Appelgren, Jari; Harms, Ute (2026). What Does It Take? A Cross-National Study Exploring Drivers for Willingness to Engage in Effortful Climate Action. Sustainable Development, pp. 1-15 Wiley. 10.1002/sd.71510

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While much is known about what drives general participation in climate action, less is known about the drivers of actions that are explicitly linked to time, resource, or convenience constraints (i.e., effortful climate action). Understanding what drives effortful climate action is important to effectively tackle climate change, as many high impact actions will most likely require additional effort. In this cross-sectional study (N = approx. 4000), the theoretical framework of climate literacy is used to examine how knowledge, skills, value orientations, and risk perception help explain people's willingness to take effortful climate action in Germany and Sweden. The results of the sequential regression analyses indicate that risk perception (i.e., “How concerned are you about global warming?”) is the strongest relative predictor of willingness to engage in effortful climate action in both countries. In contrast, the explanatory potential of knowledge about climate change and data analysis and interpretation skills is rather weak.

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