Attitudes to the Environment amongst Europeans
How concerned are people living in the EU about the environment – and what do they think should be done to address these concerns?
This was the focus of a Eurobarometer survey carried out in 2014 across all EU member states. Questions included the general attitudes, behaviour and priorities of Europeans towards the environment, the role of business and government and the interplay between the environment, economics and social factors. The results will inform the environmental objectives of the EU’s Europe 2020.
Personal attitudes and behaviour
At a personal level, protecting the environment is considered important or very important by more than 90% of respondents in all countries, with three-quarters of those surveyed feeling that environmental problems have a direct impact on their daily lives.
Cyprus (95%), Greece (93%) and Malta (90%) report the highest impact on daily life, whereas more northern European countries such as Denmark (56%), Austria (66%), the Netherlands (66%) , Belgium (67%) and Germany (68%) have the lowest number of people reporting an impact.
Specific concerns about the environment range from air (56%) and water (50%)pollution and the impact of chemicals on health (43%), to the depletion of natural resources (36%) and consumption habits (24%). Bottom of the list are land take (15%), noise pollution (15%), soil pollution (13%) and invasive non-native species (11%).
Encouragingly, the survey indicates that people are prepared to take action. Overall, 85% of people totally or tend to agree with the statement that ‘as an individual, you can play a role in protecting the environment in (your country)’. Only 3% totally disagreed, and a further 10% tended to disagree. The highest levels of agreement were in Malta, Ireland, the Netherlands (all 96%) and Sweden (95%). Conversely, the Czech Republic (73%), Hungary and Finland (74%) and Poland (75%) had the lowest levels of agreement – although it should be noted, that three in four people from these countries still agree they can play a part.
The most common activities they engage in are separating waste for recycling, cutting down energy consumption and reducing water consumption. The table opposite compares the figures for the 2014 survey with the previous 2011 survey. The number of people who don’t do anything has reduced from 6% to 4%. (Figure 1)
Buying local or environmentally friendly products and choosing environmentally friendly travel methods has increased slightly along with separating waste for recycling – however the other actions have shown a slight reduction. Three quarters of respondents would be prepared to pay more for environmentally friendly products, however one in five would not. People who left education after the age of 20 are over 20% more likely to be prepared to pay more than those who left aged 15 or under (85% compared with 63%). In addition, people who are say that protecting the environment is important to them are far more likely to pay more (83% compared with 32%)
What should big business and government do?
While a growing number of people think that citizens are doing about the right amount (29% of respondents, up 4% from 2011), the overall consensus is that neither national government nor big companies and industry are doing enough to protect the environment.
In Greece, 96% considered big companies and industry were not doing enough, and 91% thought the government could do more. This was the highest country specific figure. With regard to industry, other high scorers were Spain (89%) and Croatia (88%) whereas Estonia (61%) and Denmark (62%) were the lowest.
86% of respondents in both Croatia and Spain thought the government could do more – more than double the lowest figure of 40% in Malta.
Options for making a difference include introducing heavier fines on the worst offenders (40% considering this most effective), along with greater financial incentives (33% agree) as the view is that the big polluters themselves have a primary responsibility towards repairing the damage they cause.
Alongside local government, there was general agreement that the EU was also not doing enough to protect the environment (56%) with 3% thinking it was doing too much. Sweden (76%), Austria (70%), Germany (67%) and Spain (67%) perceived the greatest lack of EU action. In most countries however, the number who thought the EU was not doing enough was lower than that of the 2011 survey, with the greatest difference seen in Hungary (34%, -16pp), Lithuania (37%, -16pp), Latvia (42%, -15pp) and the Netherlands (53%, -13pp).
In 23 out of 27 member states, a majority of respondents think that national governments and the EU should take environmental decisions jointly. Spain (77%) has the highest proportion of respondents who take this view, followed by Portugal (76%), Belgium (73%) and Cyprus (70%).
The five countries where most people think only the national government should be responsible are Lithuania (61%), the Czech Republic (56%) Finland (56%), Estonia (54%), and the UK (50%).
So how should the EU be involved?
At least three-quarters of respondents agreed the following:
European environmental legislation is needed to protect their country’s environment
The EU should be able to check that environmental laws are being applied correctly in their country
Non-EU countries should receive assistance from the EU to improve environmental standards
Environmentally friendly activities should receive more EU funding.
In conclusion
Overall, there does not appear to be a regional or country specific pattern to the various areas explored in the survey. If there is a pattern, it is to do with socio-demographic issues. Across all countries, people who left education after the age of 20 or are in managerial roles are more likely to be concerned about the environment than those who left education at 15 or younger, or are not in employment.
And unsurprisingly, those who think that protecting the environment is very important are more likely to take personal action, or consider that the national government or EU should be more involved.
Jo Appleton
Resourcing you:
For more detail and further questions, downloaded the report from ec.europa.eu/public_opinion/archives/ebs/ebs_416_en.pdf
The EU’s Europe 2020 Environment Strategy can be found at ec.europa.eu/environment/gpp/eu_policy_en.htm