A survey conducted by YouGov across seven European countries indicates that while many Europeans are concerned about the climate crisis, their support for government policies and personal actions to combat it diminishes as these measures would significantly alter their lifestyles.
The survey measured support for state-level climate actions, such as banning single-use plastics and phasing out fossil-fuel cars, and individual initiatives, including buying only secondhand clothes and giving up meat and dairy products, among respondents from the UK, France, Germany, Denmark, Sweden, Spain, and Italy.
The results suggest that many people are in favor of measures that would not drastically affect their way of life, while larger steps that may be necessary are unpopular.
Survey
Large majorities in all the countries surveyed – ranging from 60% in Sweden, 63% in Germany and 65% in the UK to 77% in Spain, 79% in France and 81% in Italy – said they were very or fairly worried about climate change and its effects.
Broadly similar percentages said the climate was changing because of human activity, with fewer than 20% of respondents in most countries saying climate change was not due to human activity and a maximum of 5% denying it was even happening.
There was also strong support of between 76% and 85% for the view that all countries would be more effective at tackling climate change if they worked together with others – but less agreement about what exactly individuals were willing to do about it.
Measures entailing no great lifestyle sacrifice were popular, with between 45% (Germany) and 72% (Spain) backing government tree-planting programmes and 60% (Spain) and 77% (UK) saying they would grow more plants themselves or were doing so already.
Between 40% (Denmark) and 56% (UK, Spain and Italy) of respondents would happily never buy products made of single-use plastic again, while between 63% (Sweden) and 75% (Spain) would support a government ban on them.
