The impact of public climate change concern on sustainable product consumption: a case study of new energy vehicles in China

Abstract

With global climate change problems becoming increasingly serious, sustainable consumption has become an inevitable trend. In this paper, we take the Chinese new energy vehicle market as an example and research the relationship between the public climate change concern and sustainable product consumption behaviour, while considering the time decay effect of public concern. We collect authoritative secondary data on climate change Baidu search index and the monthly sales of new energy vehicle brands and use panel data to test the hypotheses empirically. The result shows that there is a significant positive effect of public climate change concern on new energy vehicle consumption behaviour. This effect is also present when the time decay effect is considered. The result shows that public new energy vehicle concern has a significant negative effect on new energy vehicle consumption behaviour. The findings provide theoretical support for government policymakers and corporate managers to promote the adoption and diffusion of sustainable products.