Can you guess what that stipulation is? It’s the same one that always crops up when asked
Many Europeans want climate action – but less so if it changes their lifestyle, shows poll
Many Europeans are alarmed by the climate crisis and would willingly take personal steps and back government policies to help combat it, a survey suggests – but the more a measure would change their lifestyle, the less they support it.
The seven-country YouGov survey tested backing for state-level climate action, such as banning single-use plastics and scrapping fossil-fuel cars, and individual initiatives including buying only secondhand clothes and giving up meat and dairy products.
The responses, from the UK, France, Germany, Denmark, Sweden, Spain and Italy, suggested many people were happy with measures that would not greatly affect the way they lead their lives, but bigger steps that may be necessary were unpopular.
They’re super happy for little changes
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.
Similarly, there was fairly solid support – from 28% in Germany to 43% in Italy – for the idea of limiting meat and dairy intake to two or three meals a week; between 24% (in the UK) and 48% (in Italy) would back government legislation to that effect.
Unsurprisingly, government subsidies to make homes more energy efficient were wildly popular, with support ranging from 86% in Spain to 67% in Germany, while covering the costs personally was rather less so (19% in Germany to 40% in Spain).
They’re good with the government giving them money, failing to realize they’re the ones who will paying for it. The funny thing is, are those same people yammering about, say, meat, doing this themselves now? Only walk, cycle, or take public transit? It’s easy to commit to Someone Else planting more trees and a frequent flyer levy when you do not fly that much, not so much when it personally impacts your own life and money.
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