Ahead of the global climate conference COP24, which took place in Poland on 3-14 December 2018, the European Investment Bank launched a first-of-its-kind climate survey, in partnership with the global public opinion company YouGov, to find out how 25 000 citizens feel towards climate change in the European Union, the United States and China.
Discover below some analysis and visualisations of the key findings from the fifth of six releases of this worldwide EIB climate survey.
You can download the full results data set here.
A majority of Europeans do not feel supported by companies in their climate-friendly actions
The survey results reveal that 54% of Europeans feel that products and services offered by businesses do not match their willingness to lower their carbon footprint, with Cypriots feeling the least supported at 81%, followed by Portuguese citizens (65%) and Italians and French citizens tied at 64%. Estonians feel the most supported by companies in their climate-friendly attitude with 35% of respondents feeling rather or very supported by companies.
Europeans – more mindful of a product's impact on climate change than US and Chinese citizens
The survey also highlights a stronger concern from Europeans for the impact of a product on climate change than in China or the United States: 67% of Europeans state that the impact of a product on climate change is very or fairly important when carrying out purchases. This is 10% higher than for Chinese or US respondents.
Find out more about attitudes towards climate change in the following countries
A majority of Germans do not feel supported by companies in their climate-friendly attitude
The survey reveals that 53% of Germans find that products and services offered by businesses do not match their willingness to lower their carbon footprint. This figure is close to the average perception of citizens across the European Union who show the same scepticism: 54% of Europeans consider companies are not helping citizens with their individual commitment to fight climate change.
When asked which measures they think are the most effective in motivating companies to reduce greenhouse gas emissions, 46% of respondents point to regulations and fiscal incentives, followed by investment in climate-friendly companies and technologies (14%) and research into climate change and climate-friendly technologies (7%).
The results also highlight a gender gap in purchasing attitudes. 65% of German women pay attention to the impact of a product or service on climate change, which is 7% higher than German men (58%).
A majority of Spaniards do not feel supported by companies in their climate-friendly attitude
The survey reveals that 59% of Spaniards find that products and services offered by businesses do not match their willingness to lower their carbon footprint. This figure is slightly above the average perception of citizens across the European Union who show the same scepticism: 54% of Europeans consider companies are not helping citizens with their individual commitment to fight climate change.
When asked which measures they think are the most effective in motivating companies to reduce greenhouse gas emissions, a large majority of respondents point to regulations and fiscal incentives (67%), followed by investment in climate-friendly companies and technologies (14%) and research into climate change and climate-friendly technologies (12%).
The results also highlight a gender gap in purchasing attitudes. 77% of Spanish women pay attention to the impact of a product or service on climate change, which is 10% higher than Spanish men (67%).
A vast majority of French citizens do not feel supported by companies in their climate-friendly attitude
The survey reveals that 64% of the French population find that products and services offered by businesses do not match their willingness to lower their carbon footprint. This figure is above the average perception of citizens across the European Union who show the same scepticism: 54% of Europeans consider companies are not helping citizens with their individual commitment to fight climate change.
When asked which measures they think are the most effective in motivating companies to reduce greenhouse gas emissions, 46% of respondents point to regulations and fiscal incentives, followed by research into climate change and climate-friendly technologies (14%) and investment in climate-friendly companies and technologies (11%).
The results also highlight a gender gap in purchasing attitudes. 60% of French women pay attention to the impact of a product or service on climate change, which is 6% higher than French men (54%).
A vast majority of Italians do not feel supported by companies in their climate-friendly attitude
The survey reveals that 64% of the Italians find that products and services offered by businesses do not match their willingness to lower their carbon footprint. This figure is above the average perception of citizens across the European Union who show the same scepticism: 54% of Europeans consider companies are not helping citizens with their individual commitment to fight climate change.
When asked which measures they think are the most effective in motivating companies to reduce greenhouse gas emissions, 48% of respondents point to regulations and fiscal incentives, followed by investment in climate-friendly companies and technologies (20%) and research into climate change and climate-friendly technologies (12%).
The results also highlight a generational gap in purchasing attitudes: older Italians pay more attention to the impact on climate change when purchasing a product or service than the younger generations (32% of Italians aged 55+, against 28% of Italians aged 34 to 55 and 21% of Italians aged 18 to 34).
Poles – very mindful of the impact of a product on climate change
The survey reveals that 74% of Poles care about the climate impact of products or services. However, only 23% of them feel supported by companies in their climate-friendly actions and behaviour.
When asked which measures they think are the most effective in motivating companies to reduce greenhouse gas emissions, 62% of respondents point to regulations and fiscal incentives, followed by investment in climate-friendly companies and technologies (15%) and competition in free markets (7%).
The results also highlight a gender gap in purchasing attitudes. 79% of Polish women pay attention to the impact of a product or service on climate change, which is 11% higher than Polish men (68%).
Few Swedes feel supported by companies in their climate-friendly attitude
The survey reveals that only 10% of Swedes consider that companies support them in their climate-friendly actions and behaviour, 2% below the European average (12%).
When asked which measures they think are the most effective in motivating companies to reduce greenhouse gas emissions, 39% of respondents point to regulations and fiscal incentives, followed by investment in climate-friendly companies and technologies (15%) and research into climate change and climate-friendly technologies (13%).
The results also highlight a gender gap in purchasing attitudes. 48% of Swedish women pay attention to the impact of a product or service on climate change, which is 17% higher than Swedish men (31%).
More climate-related data from a selection of open source researches
Get all data
Download raw excel data
Want to know more about citizens’ perception of climate change?
Contact
Thomas Froimovici
European Investment Bank
98-100, boulevard Konrad Adenauer
L-2950 Luxembourg
Luxembourg
t.froimovici@eib.org
+352 4379 - 83249
+352 691284262