Public support for net-zero climate policy packages under political party cues

Despite widespread climate change mitigation pledges, effective policy implementation faces persistent political opposition. This study investigates how political party cues shape public support for multi-sectoral climate policy mixes, and whether distinct audience segments and levels of issue salience moderate these effects. We conducted a conjoint experiment with 1,201 Canadian adults who evaluated policy packages varying across regulations and support policies for transportation and housing, and party endorsements. Latent class analysis identified five distinct audience segments. Three main findings emerged. First, party cues were more influential than the contents of proposed policy packages. Second, despite heterogeneity across segments, rejection of government inaction and broad support for ‘bridge policies’ revealed unexpected consensus. Third, issue salience provided minimal insulation against party cue effects. Results suggest that in Canada’s polarized context, political messenger strategy may prove as consequential as policy design for building public support.