Measuring Public Opinions on Renewable Energy and Climate Change Using Structural Equations Modeling

Public attitudes towards energy sources and climate change are increasingly complex. This paper explores Americans’ perceptions of energy sources including renewables, Electric Vehicles (EVs), government policies and climate change. A survey conducted by the Pew Research Center (PRC), com...

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Main Authors: Ionut Nica, Simona-Vasilica Oprea, Adela Bara
Format: Article
Language:English
Published: IEEE 2025-01-01
Series:IEEE Access
Subjects:
Online Access:https://ieeexplore.ieee.org/document/10980002/
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author Ionut Nica
Simona-Vasilica Oprea
Adela Bara
author_facet Ionut Nica
Simona-Vasilica Oprea
Adela Bara
author_sort Ionut Nica
collection DOAJ
description Public attitudes towards energy sources and climate change are increasingly complex. This paper explores Americans’ perceptions of energy sources including renewables, Electric Vehicles (EVs), government policies and climate change. A survey conducted by the Pew Research Center (PRC), comprising over 10,000 responses to 52 questions on energy sources and climate change, is analyzed. In this paper, we propose a data analysis framework that consists of Exploratory Factor Analysis (EFA), Confirmatory Factor Analysis (CFA), cluster analysis and Principal Component Analysis (PCA) to segment respondents and identify key variables. Furthermore, the Structural Equation Model (SEM) is created to examine relationships between latent and observed variables, using maximum likelihood estimation. The results validated the identified factors, with high loading on key variables indicating strong contributions to attitudes towards energy and climate policies.
format Article
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institution Kabale University
issn 2169-3536
language English
publishDate 2025-01-01
publisher IEEE
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series IEEE Access
spelling doaj-art-3e5a90f95dc141ff977a94dabeecd6f42025-08-20T03:48:57ZengIEEEIEEE Access2169-35362025-01-0113769817700010.1109/ACCESS.2025.356567610980002Measuring Public Opinions on Renewable Energy and Climate Change Using Structural Equations ModelingIonut Nica0https://orcid.org/0000-0003-2118-3654Simona-Vasilica Oprea1https://orcid.org/0000-0002-9005-5181Adela Bara2https://orcid.org/0000-0002-0961-352XDepartment of Economic Informatics and Cybernetics, Bucharest University of Economic Studies, Bucharest, RomaniaDepartment of Economic Informatics and Cybernetics, Bucharest University of Economic Studies, Bucharest, RomaniaDepartment of Economic Informatics and Cybernetics, Bucharest University of Economic Studies, Bucharest, RomaniaPublic attitudes towards energy sources and climate change are increasingly complex. This paper explores Americans’ perceptions of energy sources including renewables, Electric Vehicles (EVs), government policies and climate change. A survey conducted by the Pew Research Center (PRC), comprising over 10,000 responses to 52 questions on energy sources and climate change, is analyzed. In this paper, we propose a data analysis framework that consists of Exploratory Factor Analysis (EFA), Confirmatory Factor Analysis (CFA), cluster analysis and Principal Component Analysis (PCA) to segment respondents and identify key variables. Furthermore, the Structural Equation Model (SEM) is created to examine relationships between latent and observed variables, using maximum likelihood estimation. The results validated the identified factors, with high loading on key variables indicating strong contributions to attitudes towards energy and climate policies.https://ieeexplore.ieee.org/document/10980002/Energy adoptionclimate changepublic opiniondata analysisframeworkSEM
spellingShingle Ionut Nica
Simona-Vasilica Oprea
Adela Bara
Measuring Public Opinions on Renewable Energy and Climate Change Using Structural Equations Modeling
IEEE Access
Energy adoption
climate change
public opinion
data analysis
framework
SEM
title Measuring Public Opinions on Renewable Energy and Climate Change Using Structural Equations Modeling
title_full Measuring Public Opinions on Renewable Energy and Climate Change Using Structural Equations Modeling
title_fullStr Measuring Public Opinions on Renewable Energy and Climate Change Using Structural Equations Modeling
title_full_unstemmed Measuring Public Opinions on Renewable Energy and Climate Change Using Structural Equations Modeling
title_short Measuring Public Opinions on Renewable Energy and Climate Change Using Structural Equations Modeling
title_sort measuring public opinions on renewable energy and climate change using structural equations modeling
topic Energy adoption
climate change
public opinion
data analysis
framework
SEM
url https://ieeexplore.ieee.org/document/10980002/
work_keys_str_mv AT ionutnica measuringpublicopinionsonrenewableenergyandclimatechangeusingstructuralequationsmodeling
AT simonavasilicaoprea measuringpublicopinionsonrenewableenergyandclimatechangeusingstructuralequationsmodeling
AT adelabara measuringpublicopinionsonrenewableenergyandclimatechangeusingstructuralequationsmodeling