European Perceptions of Climate Change (EPCC): A comparison between four European Countries

Public perceptions of climate change, and support for policies to tackle it, are critical for Europe’s efforts to meet the targets of the most recent international agreement, which aims to keep the rise of global temperature... [ view full abstract ]

Public perceptions of climate change, and support for policies to tackle it, are critical for Europe’s efforts to meet the targets of the most recent international agreement, which aims to keep the rise of global temperature below 2°C. The reduction of Europe’s greenhouse gas emissions will only be possible if every country implements additional measures to achieve this. Our collaborative project will contribute towards a systematic and detailed understanding of European public perceptions of climate change and energy preferences in four key northern European countries (the UK, Germany, France, and Norway). Our project brings together a team of highly experienced inter-disciplinary research groups from the four participating countries to conduct a novel synthesis and comparison of European public perceptions of energy and climate change, and the socio-political context in which they are formed. While attitudes to climate change have been well documented in individual European countries (Engels, Hüther, Schäfer, & Held, 2013; Renn, & Zwick, 2002; Spence, Venables, Pidgeon, Poortinga, Demski, 2010, Tvinnereim, & Austgulen, 2013), survey designs have never been coordinated. Therefore, the main objective of our project is to conduct nationally representative and directly comparable surveys of public opinion on climate change and energy in Germany, France, Norway and the United Kingdom. However, this project will go beyond simply documenting differences between European publics on climate change, and aims to identify explanations for why these differences might occur. Therefore, we have conducted an in-depth socio-political analysis – with the advice and guidance of the stakeholder panel – to establish a robust and practically-driven evidence base with which to inform the design of the survey. Our socio-political analysis compares the four participating countries across five themes: 1) cultural, historical & policy context, 2) key actors, 3) key events, 4) media reporting, and 4) projected climate impacts/consequences. Based on this in-depth analysis the survey will a) identify the structure of climate change perceptions in Germany, France, Norway and the United Kingdom b) give insight into the public(s) engagement with climate change potential responses and policies c) identify the role of individual social political values and other individual level factors and d) identify the role of contextual national social-political factors in explaining public perceptions and engagement with climate change. We will present the results of the socio-political analysis, the survey items and the methodological outline of this project.