Heterogeneity and Global Climate Action

Heterogeneity and Global Climate Action | Research Square window.SnipcartSettings = { analytics: { enabled: false } }; (function() { var accessVector = localStorage.getItem('access_vector') || ''; window.dataLayer = window.dataLayer || []; if (accessVector) { window.dataLayer.push({ user: { profile: { profileInfo: { snid: accessVector } } } }); } })(); (function(w,d,s,l,i){w[l]=w[l]||[];w[l].push({'gtm.start':new Date().getTime(),event:'gtm.js'});var f=d.getElementsByTagName(s)[0],j=d.createElement(s),dl=l!='dataLayer'?'&l='+l:'';j.async=true;j.src='https://www.googletagmanager.com/gtm.js?id='+i+dl;f.parentNode.insertBefore(j,f);})(window,document,'script','dataLayer','GTM-K279D39R'); Browse Preprints In Review Journals COVID-19 Preprints AJE Video Bytes Research Tools Research Promotion AJE Professional Editing AJE Rubriq About Preprint Platform In Review Editorial Policies Our Team Advisory Board Help Center Sign In Submit a Preprint Cite Share Download PDF Article Heterogeneity and Global Climate Action Giorgos Galanis, Giorgio Ricchiuti, Ben Tippet This is a preprint; it has not been peer reviewed by a journal. https://doi.org/ 10.21203/rs.3.rs-7150240/v1 This work is licensed under a CC BY 4.0 License Status: Posted Version 1 posted You are reading this latest preprint version Abstract Countries respond differently to climate change, yet the impact of behavioral heterogeneity on global climate action remains unexplored. This leads to two related questions that we address: (i) how variation in preferences influences the global political economy of climate action; and (ii) what conditions enable sustained, high-level global action? We develop an empirically driven evolutionary political economy integrated assessment model where heterogeneous countries, in each period, choose whether to take action to reduce emissions or not. These choices depend on current emission levels, overall participation in climate action, and heterogeneity-related factors such as cross-country income inequality, climate vulnerability, and other political economy dynamics. Our model shows the possibility of various outcomes, where high levels of sustained global action is only one alternative. Sustained high levels of global action are achieved only if there is a low degree of heterogeneity in countries' preferences for action and a strong peer pressure effect. Earth and environmental sciences/Environmental social sciences/Environmental economics Earth and environmental sciences/Environmental social sciences/Climate-change policy Earth and environmental sciences/Environmental social sciences/Socioeconomic scenarios Climate action Heterogeneous agents Evolutionary dynamics Integrated assessment 1 Full Text Additional Declarations There is NO Competing Interest. Cite Share Download PDF Status: Posted Version 1 posted You are reading this latest preprint version Research Square lets you share your work early, gain feedback from the community, and start making changes to your manuscript prior to peer review in a journal. As a division of Research Square Company, we’re committed to making research communication faster, fairer, and more useful. We do this by developing innovative software and high quality services for the global research community. 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Also discoverable on Platform About Our Team In Review Editorial Policies Advisory Board Help Center Resources Author Services Accessibility API Access RSS feed Manage Cookie Preferences © Research Square 2026 | ISSN 2693-5015 (online) Privacy Policy Terms of Service Do Not Sell My Personal Information {"props":{"pageProps":{"initialData":{"identity":"rs-7150240","acceptedTermsAndConditions":true,"allowDirectSubmit":true,"archivedVersions":[],"articleType":"Article","associatedPublications":[],"authors":[{"id":500057117,"identity":"0e6b3204-30ca-4c22-8677-5be3be7a21de","order_by":0,"name":"Giorgos Galanis","email":"data:image/png;base64,iVBORw0KGgoAAAANSUhEUgAAAZAAAAAyAQMAAABI0h/eAAAABlBMVEX///8AAABVwtN+AAAACXBIWXMAAA7EAAAOxAGVKw4bAAAA50lEQVRIiWNgGAWjYLCCBwwMPAzsDUBWAZjPTFhLAkgLzwEgy4AELQwMEglEapF3YL/4IaHmjoz8zMdbN/MYMMjzN/AYG+DTYniAp1gi4dgzHoPbaWW3gVoMZxzgMU7Aq6WBJ0Eige0wj4F0jhlIC+MGBh7jAwS0JP9I+HeYR37mGbAWe4Ja5BnYj0kkth3mYbjBA9aSCNKC12EGzDxsFol9QIedSSu7OcdAInnGYbZivN6Xb29/fOPDt8P28u2Ht914U2Fj29/evFkCry1A8+FsIJYgHJHyDewPkLWMglEwCkbBKMAEAKDIQ6akXM9kAAAAAElFTkSuQmCC","orcid":"","institution":"Queen Mary University of London","correspondingAuthor":true,"prefix":"","firstName":"Giorgos","middleName":"","lastName":"Galanis","suffix":""},{"id":500057118,"identity":"3c714bbc-3169-46bb-85ab-dd775895d971","order_by":1,"name":"Giorgio Ricchiuti","email":"","orcid":"https://orcid.org/0000-0003-1309-3165","institution":"Università degli Studi di Firenze","correspondingAuthor":false,"prefix":"","firstName":"Giorgio","middleName":"","lastName":"Ricchiuti","suffix":""},{"id":500057119,"identity":"1c415203-0a0f-4234-b6cd-8d27d870db58","order_by":2,"name":"Ben Tippet","email":"","orcid":"","institution":"King's College of London","correspondingAuthor":false,"prefix":"","firstName":"Ben","middleName":"","lastName":"Tippet","suffix":""}],"badges":[],"createdAt":"2025-07-17 14:45:23","currentVersionCode":1,"declarations":"","doi":"10.21203/rs.3.rs-7150240/v1","doiUrl":"https://doi.org/10.21203/rs.3.rs-7150240/v1","draftVersion":[],"editorialEvents":[],"editorialNote":"","failedWorkflow":false,"files":[{"id":100365306,"identity":"5478c981-5fe2-4559-a681-88fb2be5f978","added_by":"auto","created_at":"2026-01-16 07:55:01","extension":"pdf","order_by":1,"title":"","display":"","copyAsset":false,"role":"manuscript-pdf","size":1079778,"visible":true,"origin":"","legend":"Article File","description":"","filename":"HetClimateActionsNatureCommunication.pdf","url":"https://assets-eu.researchsquare.com/files/rs-7150240/v1_covered_477dd525-8eda-4574-8a37-746a0572e6d9.pdf"}],"financialInterests":"There is \u003cb\u003eNO\u003c/b\u003e Competing Interest.","formattedTitle":"Heterogeneity and Global Climate Action","fulltext":[],"fulltextSource":"","fullText":"","funders":[],"hasAdminPriorityOnWorkflow":false,"hasManuscriptDocX":false,"hasOptedInToPreprint":true,"hasPassedJournalQc":"","hasAnyPriority":true,"hideJournal":true,"highlight":"","institution":"","isAcceptedByJournal":false,"isAuthorSuppliedPdf":true,"isDeskRejected":"","isHiddenFromSearch":false,"isInQc":false,"isInWorkflow":false,"isPdf":true,"isPdfUpToDate":true,"isWithdrawnOrRetracted":false,"journal":{"display":true,"email":"[email protected]","identity":"researchsquare","isNatureJournal":false,"hasQc":true,"allowDirectSubmit":true,"externalIdentity":"","sideBox":"","snPcode":"","submissionUrl":"/submission","title":"Research Square","twitterHandle":"researchsquare","acdcEnabled":true,"dfaEnabled":false,"editorialSystem":"","reportingPortfolio":"","inReviewEnabled":false,"inReviewRevisionsEnabled":true},"keywords":"Climate action, Heterogeneous agents, Evolutionary dynamics, Integrated assessment 1","lastPublishedDoi":"10.21203/rs.3.rs-7150240/v1","lastPublishedDoiUrl":"https://doi.org/10.21203/rs.3.rs-7150240/v1","license":{"name":"CC BY 4.0","url":"https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/"},"manuscriptAbstract":"Countries respond differently to climate change, yet the impact of behavioral heterogeneity on global climate action remains unexplored. 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