International Journal of Sustainable Building Technology and Urban Development ISSN:2093-761X(Print) 2093-7628(Online)

Climate change is worsening, and an unusual array of weather events are negatively affecting countries around the world. Many governments have promised to alleviate the negative effects of climate change and reduce carbon emissions. Still, firm evidence that governments are investing in the environment is yet to be seen. Thus, the need for governments increasing spending on the environment and enhancing environmental sustainability is more urgent than ever before. Within this context, we investigate whether individuals’ perceived climate risk is associated with their support of environmental spending. Moreover, we focus our study on whether the relationships between individuals’ perceived climate risk and support for environmental spending are moderated by individuals’ level of political trust. Using the 2021 Korean General Social Survey and an ordered logit regression (n = 693), we found that perceived climate risk is positively associated with support for environmental spending. More importantly, political trust moderates the linkage between perceived climate risk and support for environmental spending. Consequently, the linkage is strengthened as the level of political trust increases, indicating that individuals with an increased level of perceived climate risk will be more supportive of environmental spending if they possess a greater level of political trust. We consider the implications of the findings in both scholarly and practical contexts.