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Climate change and the private solution trap
https://magazine.unibo.it/en/articles/climate-change-and-the-private-solution-trapA major international study involving more than 7,500 participants across 34 countries shows that people with greater resources are more likely to invest in local mitigation measures and less likely to support broader action to cut emissions—pushing a global solution further out of reach
24 March 2026
"Participants who were assigned more resources at the beginning of the game invested in private solutions twice as often as those who started with fewer resources, and contributed proportionally less to the shared investment in the public solution”
In the fight against climate change, prioritising private mitigation measures over public initiatives to reduce greenhouse gas emissions weakens the effectiveness of global efforts, increases inequality, and leaves poorer countries and more vulnerable citizens exposed to greater risks. This is the “private solution trap” into which wealthier nations are especially likely to fall: in seeking to protect their own populations, they end up worsening the negative effects of global warming.
These dynamics are explored in an international study published in PNAS, to which researchers from the University of Bologna also contributed. The research involved more than 7,500 people from 34 countries, who took part in a simulation on how economic resources are allocated to address climate change.
“One of the central issues in climate negotiations is how to distribute the economic effort required from different countries to limit global warming,” said Alessandro Tavoni, Professor at the University of Bologna’s Department of Economics and one of the study’s authors. “Our findings show, however, that those with greater resources tend to invest more in private mitigation measures and less in broad public action to reduce emissions. This behaviour only increases inequality and moves a global solution further out of reach.”
…
E. Malthouse, C. Pilgrim, D. Sgroi, M. Accerenzi, A. Alfonso, R.U. Ashraf, M. Baard, S. Banerjee, A. Belianin, S. Bhattacharjee, M. Bhattacharya, P. Brañas-Garza, J. Cárdenas, M. Carriquiry, S. Choi, G. Clochard, E.E. Denzon, B. Dessoulavy-Sliwinski, G. Dini, L. Dong, A. Ertl, F. Exadaktylos, E. Filiz-Ozbay, S.L. Flecke, F. Galeotti, T. Garcia-Muñoz, N. Hanaki, G. Hollard, D. Horn, L. Huang, D. İriş, H.J. Kiss, J. Koch, J. Kovářík, O.K.B. Kwarteng, A. Lange, M. Leites, T.H. Leung, W. Lim, M. Morren, L. Nockur, C.Y. Okyere, M. Oudah, A.I. Ozkes, L. Page, J. Park, S. Pfattheicher, A. Proestakis, C. Ramos, M. Ramos-Sosa, M.S. Ashraf, M.R. Sanjaya, R. Schwaiger, O. Sene, F. Song, S. Spycher, R. Staněk, N. Tanchingco, A. Tavoni, V. te Velde, M.J. Vázquez-De Francisco, M. Visser, J.T. Wang, W. Wang, W. Weng, K. Werner, A. Wijayanti, R. Winkler, J. Wooders, L. Ying, W. Zhen, & T. Hills, The private solution trap in collective action problems across 34 nations, Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. U.S.A. 123 (12) e2504632123, https://doi.org/10.1073/pnas.2504632123 (2026).24 March 2026
"Participants who were assigned more resources at the beginning of the game invested in private solutions twice as often as those who started with fewer resources, and contributed proportionally less to the shared investment in the public solution”
In the fight against climate change, prioritising private mitigation measures over public initiatives to reduce greenhouse gas emissions weakens the effectiveness of global efforts, increases inequality, and leaves poorer countries and more vulnerable citizens exposed to greater risks. This is the “private solution trap” into which wealthier nations are especially likely to fall: in seeking to protect their own populations, they end up worsening the negative effects of global warming.
These dynamics are explored in an international study published in PNAS, to which researchers from the University of Bologna also contributed. The research involved more than 7,500 people from 34 countries, who took part in a simulation on how economic resources are allocated to address climate change.
“One of the central issues in climate negotiations is how to distribute the economic effort required from different countries to limit global warming,” said Alessandro Tavoni, Professor at the University of Bologna’s Department of Economics and one of the study’s authors. “Our findings show, however, that those with greater resources tend to invest more in private mitigation measures and less in broad public action to reduce emissions. This behaviour only increases inequality and moves a global solution further out of reach.”
…