"Place Matters": Environmental awareness and public support to transition policies in Latin America

Despite growing evidence that territorial divides shape support for climate policies, little is known about how these dynamics operate in Latin America. This paper tests two core hypotheses: whether residents of non-metropolitan areas exhibit stronger awareness of environmental risks due to greater exposure to localized hazards, and whether support for climate and transition policies is lower in peripheral regions than in metropolitan areas, as apparent in Europe.

Our empirical approach is sequential. We first use LAPOP microdata from 16 Latin American countries over the period 2014– 2023 to estimate the effect of place of residence on environmental perceptions and policy preferences. Then we mobilize 88 qualitative interviews conducted in peripheral territories in Argentina, Chile, Colombia, and Mexico to shed light on the  echanisms underlying spatial heterogeneity beyond simple urban-rural divides. Quantitative results show that geographical characteristics trump socioeconomic factors in explaining environmental preferences and perceptions, while challenging the expectation of systematically lower support for transition policies in peripheral regions.

Although  awareness of climate risks is widespread across territories, policy preferences vary sharply by place of residence with peripheral areas’ respondents being more supportive of transition policies than metropolitan ones. Qualitative evidence suggests that stronger support for prioritizing environmental protection in peripheral areas is rooted in localized experiences of environmental degradation and perceived policy inaction, which are less salient in metropolitan contexts. These findings underscore the importance of accounting for spatial heterogeneity when designing climate and environmental transition policies.