Determinants of public willingness to adopt renewable energy in Pakistan: a theory of planned behavior-based investigation

Many developing nations, including Pakistan, have a critical energy crisis due to a high rate of population growth, urbanization, and a high dependency on imported fossil fuels that are expensive and have undesirable environmental effects. Renewable energy (RE) presents a viable alternative; however, this has not been properly used as a policy to prevent the overuse of fossil fuels. This paper explores the willingness to pay and the perception of RE in Pakistan in the framework of the theory of planned behavior through studying the effect of the background variables (awareness, perceived benefits, perceived barriers, and moral obligation) and the components of the TPB model (attitude, subjective norms, and perceived behavioral control).

It involved collecting data on 1575 respondents and analysing it with partial least squares structural equation modelling and SPSS. The findings reveal that the perceived advantages and challenges have a substantial and positive effect on attitude, which in turn mediates their effect on willingness to pay. Predictors of willingness to pay are attitude and subjective norms reflecting consumers’ intention to adopt RE.

Nevertheless, awareness and moral obligation do not demonstrate any significant correlation with subjective norms, and subjective norms do not mediate their connection with willingness to pay. The findings of the study are very important to policymakers and energy stakeholders as they demonstrate the necessity of considering the perceived benefits, barriers, and attitudinal issues to amplify the adoption of RE and guide the effective policy and project implementation in Pakistan. The authors extend their sincere appreciation to the Ongoing Research Funding Program, (ORF-2026-546), King Saud University, Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, for funding this research article.

This study was financially supported by the Ongoing Research Funding Program (ORF-2026-546), King Saud University, Riyadh, Saudi Arabia. Faculty of Engineering, China University of Geosciences, Wuhan, 430074, China State Key Laboratory of Petroleum Resources and Engineering, China University of Petroleum (Beijing), Beijing, 102249, China Department of Oil-Gas Field Development Engineering, China University of Petroleum (Beijing), Beijing, 102249, China Department of Earth and Environmental Sciences, Bahria School of Engineering and Applied Sciences, Bahria University, Islamabad, 44000, Pakistan Center of Research Excellence-Earth, Climate and Environment, Bahria University Islamabad, Islamabad, 44000, Pakistan School of Earth and Environment, Anhui University of Science and Technology, Huainan, China Department of Geology and Geophysics, College of Science, King Saud University, P.O. Box 2455, 11451, Riyadh, Saudi Arabia College of Geosciences, China University of Petroleum (Beijing), Beijing, 102249, China Department of Earth and Atmosphere Science, University of Houston, Houston, TX, USA Correspondence to Muhsan Ehsan or Kamal Abdelrahman.

The authors declare no competing interests. All other co-authors have approved the manuscript and agree with its submission without any conflict. The authors agree with the publication of the manuscript.

We confirm that no institutional, national, or international guidelines or permissions were required for this research to be conducted in Pakistan. However, the study is conducted in accordance with the latest version of the Declaration of Helsinki. Springer Nature remains neutral with regard to jurisdictional claims in published maps and institutional affiliations.