Europeans Show Strong Support for Climate Change Targets
September 12, 2008 // Published as a news service by IHS
Results of a special Eurobarometer survey of public attitudes about climate change commissioned by the European Parliament (EP) and the European Commission (EC) were published on Sept. 11.
The survey shows that Europeans are highly concerned about climate change and clearly willing to take action against it.
A majority of Europeans believes that the European Union (EU) targets for reducing greenhouse gas emissions and increasing the share of renewable energy by 2020 are about right or even too modest.
However, a significant proportion of people feel poorly informed about climate change and ways to help fight it.
"The fact that many Europeans say that they do not have enough information, in particular on the actions that citizens could take, clearly indicates that we have to think about initiatives and measures to spread this knowledge more widely, especially among the most vulnerable groups of our population," said Guido Sacconi, chairman of the EP's temporary Committee on Climate Change. "The role of regional and local authorities in this task will be crucial."
Margot Wallström, EC vice president, said, "Surveys of this kind are important components in our policy-making. It is striking to see that European citizens take the issue of climate change so seriously, and it confirms our belief that continued, coherent EU action in this area is imperative."
Stavros Dimas, EC environment commissioner, said, "The message is that a majority of Europeans supports the EU's targets or wants us to do even more. It is essential that the European Parliament and Council approve the Commission's climate and renewable energy proposals from January so Europe will be able to deliver fully on these targets and meet citizens' expectations."
Majority believes climate change can be solved
According to the survey, three-quarters of citizens take the problem of climate change very seriously. In total, 62% of respondents consider climate change to be one of the two most serious problems facing the world today, being placed in the top two by 68% (only poverty scored higher).
At the same time that Europeans widely recognize the seriousness of climate change, most (60%) believe it is not unstoppable and can be solved. A clear majority (56%) consider that fighting climate change can have a positive impact on the economy.
A substantial majority of Europeans consider the EU's targets on greenhouse gases and renewable energy to be about right or too modest. The three targets, set by EU leaders last year and to be met by 2020, are:
- A cut of at least 20% in greenhouse gas emissions below 1990 levels.
- A cut of 30% if other developed countries commit to comparable reductions.
- An increase in the share of renewable energy to 20%.
These targets were judged to be about right or too modest by, respectively, 68%, 61% and 69% of respondents.
Lack of information
More than half of Europeans sampled feel informed about the causes (56%) and the consequences (56%) of climate change, plus the ways of fighting it (52%).
However, the proportion of citizens who feel poorly informed about the subject remains significant, at more than four in ten. Lack of information is mentioned as an important reason for not taking action to combat climate change.
Action to tackle climate change
Europeans think that not enough is being done to combat climate change by corporations and industry (76%), citizens themselves (67%), their national governments (64%) and the EU (58%).
A clear majority (61%) confirm that they have taken some kind of action against climate change themselves. However, the types of action taken mainly involve little personal or financial effort, such as separating waste or reducing consumption of energy, water or throw-away products.
The main reason cited by respondents for not taking action against climate change is that they think governments, companies and industries should change their behavior. Some 44% of those polled say they would be prepared to pay more for energy produced from sources that emit less greenhouse gases, while 30% would not (26% did not respond).
Background
Interviews for this special Eurobarometer survey were conducted between March and May this year, among 30,170 citizens in the 27 EU member states, the three candidate countries (Croatia, Turkey and the former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia) and in the Turkish Cypriot community.
The full report on Europeans' attitudes towards climate change is available online.
Source: European Commission.