Abstract
Abstract The diffusion of clean technologies is critical for climate goals, yet political polarization influences adoption. Here we examine how ideology affects residential solar photovoltaic (PV) and electric vehicle (EV) uptake in Germany, drawing on responses from a three-wave individual-level survey, municipality-level observations of PV and EV registrations and election results. Supporters of the far-right Alternative für Deutschland (AfD) show significantly lower willingness to adopt EVs and, to a lesser degree, PV systems compared with supporters of the pro-environmental Bündnis 90 / Die Grünen (GRÜNE) party. However, polarization is not static. The relative adoption gap between municipalities with strong AfD support and those with strong GRÜNE support declined from 76% to 31% for solar PV between 2000 and 2023, and from 84% to 60% for EVs between 2015 and 2019. Here, using an instrumental-variable strategy based on wolf attacks as a predictor of AfD vote share, we provide complementary evidence on the relationship between far-right voting and the adoption of clean technology. Counterfactual simulations indicate that, by 2023, solar PV diffusion could have been up to 1.3% higher and EV diffusion up to 2.9% higher in the absence of rising electoral support for the far right.