Thursday 4 May 2023

‘The more people have to change lifestyles for climate action, the less they support it’

‘The more people have to change lifestyles for climate action, the less they support it’

The number of Europeans backing climate action drops significantly if it means making a change in their own life.

That’s according to a new survey by YouGov, revealing that the more a measure would impact their lifestyles, the less willingly they would support it.

Samples of 1,000 people from various countries were questioned for the study, with 77% of Brits saying they were worried about the impacts of climate change – with this rising to 79% in France and 81% in Italy.

Government tree-planting was supported by 77% of the UK and 72% of Spain, as it has almost no impact on people’s daily lives.

However, making an impactful decision on an individual’s life like dropping a petrol car for an electric one saw numbers drop heavily, with more than 66% of all respondents saying they would not make the change.

Even less popular was the outright banning of petrol and diesel cars and an increase in fuel duty to cut emissions.

All nations questioned other than Spain and Italy said they were opposed to these ideas.

A government subsidy scheme to make homes more energy efficient was hugely popular with all nations – but as soon as the question changed to the person themselves bearing the cost, this dropped to as low as 19% in Germany.

Written by

Bruna Pinhoni

Trending Articles