Public support for environmental policy depends on beliefs concerning effectiveness, intrusiveness, and fairness.

In industrialised countries, emissions from fossil-fuelled vehicles show little sign of abatement, with citizens' opposition to policy interventions arguably the key reason. To better understand the sources of public opinion towards particular types of policy instruments designed to reduce vehicle emissions, we focus on the perceived consequences of such instruments, notably the extent to which they are regarded as effective, fair, and unintrusive. Switzerland is the empirical focus because it lags behind neighbouring European countries. We assess public support for seven policy instruments, identified by existing literature and expert interviews. A survey-embedded experiment with a representative sample of 2,034 citizens provides support for the argument that policy instruments perceived as effective, fair, and unintrusive achieve higher levels of public support. These results may help policymakers design interventions that strike a balance between political feasibility and problem-solving effectiveness. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]