The power of the known: How does public scepticism influenced by political and celebrity figures affect trust in climate science, and what are the implications for the legitimacy of climate policy?

The trust in climate science globally is above roughly 90 per cent. However, there is large spatial discrepancy and policy – dependency. Furthermore, recent developments of leading figures might induce a change in trust from certain societal groups towards climate scientists. How the societal view on climate change (mitigation) is changing with an alteration in displayed opinions from media-relevant figures is of high importance for climate science and scientists behavior, questioning the role and performance of science.