Chinese Netizens’ Perceptions and Attitudes Towards Carbon Neutrality: A Mixed Methods Study

Abstract This paper analyses 8,033 Weibo posts to examine Chinese netizens’ perceptions and attitudes towards carbon neutrality. Automated and manual content analysis methods are used to identify themes, topics, and interest considerations in the posts, while SnowNLP is employed to assess netizens’ attitudes. The results show that carbon neutrality remains a controversial issue in China. Under popular themes such as carbon management, industry retrofits, energy use, and environmental behavior, netizens extensively discuss the negative consequences of implementing carbon neutrality policies. Different netizens have varying interests in the implementation of carbon neutrality, such as global interests, national interests, industry interests, group interests, corporate interests, individual interests, and others. Although the majority of internet users hold a supportive attitude towards carbon neutrality, the support rate has declined over time.