First, the project team conducted a field experiment at the 101st German Catholic Day in Münster. There, it was investigated to what extent the Catholic Church can promote individual donations for climate protection by credibly positioning itself as a climate friendly institution and by leading by example. It was shown that the visitors of the convention increased their donations significantly by 56 % due to credible signals of the Catholic Church to be in favour of climate protection. Given the Catholic Church's considerable reach, with around 22 million members in Germany and 1.3 billion members worldwide, it could have a significant impact on climate protection behavior in society. In a subsequent online experiment, it was investigated in which way the Catholic Church could position itself as a climate friendly institution most effectively. The results show that it is primarily the behavior of Catholic institutions that can create a credible signal of the Catholic Church's willingness to protect the climate. In our experiment, these were significantly more effective in improving the climate reputation of the Catholic Church's than its prescripts, such as the encyclical "Laudato Si'" in which Pope Francis calls for more climate protection.
 
To the published research article on the study