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Opinion dynamics models are increasingly used to understand changes in opinions, behaviors, and policy in the context of climate change. We review recent research that demonstrates how these models enable the linkages between individual, social, institutional, and biophysical factors to explain when and how social change emerges over time and what its impact might be on emissions and the climate system. We focus on applications of opinion dynamics models to climate change and describe how factors interact in those models to create feedback loops that reinforce or dampen change. We demonstrate how these models reveal the dynamics of consensus or polarization in climate opinions, the evolution of sustainability technologies and policies, and when and how interventions or negotiations related to climate change are likely to succeed or fail. 

Despite the growing impacts of climate change worldwide, achieving consensus on climate action remains a challenge partly because of heterogeneity in perceptions of climate risks within and across countries. Lack of consensus has hindered global collective action. We use a system dynamics approach to examine how interactions among cultural, socio-political, psychological, and institutional factors shape public support or opposition for climate mitigation policy. We investigate the conditions under which the dominant public opinion about climate policy can shift within a 20-year time frame. We observed opinion shifts in 20% of simulations, primarily in individualistic cultural contexts with high perceived climate risk. Changing the dominant opinion was especially difficult to achieve in collectivistic cultures, as we observed no shifts in dominant opinion within the parameter ranges examined. Our study underscores the importance of understanding how cultural context mediates the approaches needed to effectively mobilize collective climate action.