International climate adaptation assistance: Assessing public support in Switzerland

PLOS ONE | https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0317344 February 12, 2025 6 / 26 PLOS ONE Support for adaptation assistance in Switzerland language, religion, and colonial history. Referencing actual rather than hypothetical coun- tries is intended to simulate a more realistic context, to which respondents could relate more directly. Based on the preceding discussion, we hypothesize: Hypothesis 5: Support for the policy package will be lower for countries located in closer proximity (Algeria and Kenya) as opposed to a far-off continent (Bangladesh and Philippines) in reference to Switzerland. H5 suggests that we may expect context-specific dynamics to influence support for climate adaptation packages, reinforcing the value of the comparative perspective. The relevance of geographical regions and distance is likely to reflect the underlying politics of migration and vulnerability, as well as cultural and historical legacies associated, for instance, with colonial- ism. The inclusion of countries with different cultural and historical backgrounds within each region further allows us to explore indirectly if cultural biases related to religion and language, for instance, could be detected with respect to public support for adaptation packages. This is to our knowledge one of the first studies to explore the underlying politics that may influence public support in the Global North for climate assistance for overseas countries located both across and within continents. Finally, the last two hypotheses, consider how different types of extreme weather events

might influence public support for adaptation assistance, again with attention to the Swiss context as a donor country. Given that important regions and sectors in Switzerland, includ- ing water, tourism, agriculture, and the Alpine regions more generally, are highly vulnerable to climate change, the Swiss public might be more sympathetic to countries that experience similar extreme weather events (floods and droughts as opposed to cyclones or sea level rise). Swiss residents may relate more directly to the consequences of such events and the resulting need for adaptation. Alternatively, the intensity of other extreme weather (such as cyclones and floods) tends to be captured dramatically in the media, which might enhance public support for adaptation assistance to overseas countries [34,48,49]. Such a portrayal can evoke empathy for countries that have contributed little to climate change but whose human security and economies are threatened by sudden-onset events over which they have little control. There may be a perception, because of media attention, that sudden-offset severe events are likely to bring about more severe damage, human displacement, and suffering and thus require immediate adaptation assistance. We thus distinguish between a “linked fate” hypothesis, referring to shared experience with climatic weather events (Hypothesis 5a), and a “sudden-onset events” hypothesis related to their anticipated high impact and salience (Hypothesis 5b). Hypothesis 6a: Support for the policy package will be higher for countries that experi-

ence floods and droughts as opposed to sea-level rise and cyclones. Hypothesis 6b: Support for the policy package will be higher for countries that experi- ence sudden-onset events, such as floods and cyclones as opposed to slow-onset events such as sea level rise and droughts. Case selection and model In terms of case selection, we focus on Switzerland because it has a consistent record of implementing climate mitigation policy commitments under the UNFCCC [72–74]. The most recent Climate and Innovation Act, known also as the Net-Zero Climate Law, sets interme- diary objectives and means for reaching net-zero emissions. The government proposal was