According to the United Nations, climate change is a defining “issue of our time”. Rising CO2 levels will lead to droughts and floods, and unliveable temperatures in some densely populated regions. Crop failure, hunger, heat waves and water shortage and poverty may result in large numbers of climate refugees and ‘water wars’ between countries. As shown in chart 1 and 2, Europeans are aware of the future problems, care about environmental quality, and are concerned for themselves and others.
Chart 1: Percentage of people that think the world’s climate is definitely or probably changing
Source: Atlas of European Values
Chart 2: Opinion on a scale of 0 to 100: The impact of climate change will be very bad on people across the world
Source: Atlas of European Values
The relationship between economic growth and protecting the environment is undeniable and complex. Economic growth often increases industrial activity and, consequently, energy consumption, which can result in more pollution. So, balancing economic development and protecting the environment and public health is necessary. Europeans hold contrasting values regarding economic growth or environmental conservation (chart 3).
Chart 3: Percentage of people that think protecting the environment should be given priority with respect to economic growth or vice versa
Source: Atlas of European Values
Social sciences offer two explanations for differences in environmental concern between countries, over time and across different groups in society. The first focuses on wealth and post materialism and was introduced by the scholar Ronald Inglehart (1997)1. He argues that as more and more people grow up in economically stable and secure societies, their basic needs are fulfilled and they will strive for higher order non-economic goals such as self. expression, autonomy, and quality of life. Concern for nature conservation and biodiversity fall into these ‘higher needs’ and can thus be regarded as a kind of luxury good.
The second explanation for environmentalism is individual and direct experience with pollution or nature degradation, for example through smog. dead rivers or forest clearing. Concerns about health problems and loss of nature will trigger environmentalism. This can explain differences in environmental concern at the country level as well as the individual.
Chart 4: Percentage of people that think that themselves can make a difference for the environment or is there no point in acting environmentally friendly
The chart shows a majority or minority (in percentage points) in the population answering this question positively. In Sweden and Albania a clear majority thinks individual action does make a difference, whereas in Azerbaijan and Serbia most people feel that individual efforts have no effect.
The data from EVS also allow us to outline the characteristics of the typical European activist and, at the same time, of the European skeptic regarding environmental issues:
Figure 1: Typical climate activist and Typical climate change skeptic
(Source: Atlas of European Values p.113)
It’s surprising to note that the data from the EVS doesn’t highlight significant discrepancies among different generations in their propensity to act against global warming (chart 5). There isn’t a significant gap between the young and the elderly, as one might often assume when listening to the media, politicians, or activists. This suggests that the interest in the climate issue isn’t limited to a specific age group but involves a variety of people. While it may seem that young people are the primary spokespeople for environmental concerns, there’s actually widespread interest across all generations.
Chart 5: Most environmentally conscious generation
(Source: Atlas of European Values p.116)
To study in depth and become acquainted with our studies on the European Value of Work, please refer to publications based on the EVS data and listed in the EVS Bibliography (the EVS Bibliography is annually updated) of which you can find below an excerpt of the latest:
Bühren, Christoph and Wicker, Pamela (2023): “Environmental attitudes among Europeans: the moderating effects of volunteering and sports club membership”. In: Environmental Economics and Policy Studies: 1-21.
Čábelková, Inna; Smutka, Luboš; Mareš, David; Ortikov, Akhmadjon and Kontsevaya, Stanislava (2023): “Environmental protection or economic growth? The effects of preferences for individual freedoms”. In: Frontiers in Environmental Science 11: 1-15.
Campos-Soria, Juan Antonio; García-Pozo, Alejandro; Marchante Mera, Andrés J. and Núñez Carrasco, Aníbal (2017): “Does destination choice affect environmental attitudes of european tourists?”. Paper presented at the meeting of the 2017 International Academic Conference on Business, Stockholm, Sweden, June 4.-8.
Campos-Soria, Juan A.; Núñez-Carrasco, J. Aníbal and García-Pozo, Alejandro (2021): “Environmental Concern and Destination Choices of Tourists: Exploring the Underpinnings of Country Heterogeneity”. In: Journal of Travel Research 60 (3): 532-545.
Cicatiello, Lorenzo; Ercolano, Salvatore; Gaeta, Giuseppe Lucio and Pinto, Mauro (2020): “Willingness to pay for environmental protection and the importance of pollutant industries in the regional economy. Evidence from Italy”. In: Ecological Economics 177. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ecolecon.2020.106774
Gugushvili, Dimitri (2021): “Public attitudes toward economic growth versus environmental sustainability dilemma: Evidence from Europe”. In: International Journal of Comparative Sociology 62 (3): 224-240.
Hardadi, Gilang; Buchholz, Alexander and Pauliuk, Stefan (2021): “Implications of the distribution of German household environmental footprints across income groups for integrating environmental and social policy design”. In: Journal of Industrial Ecology 25 (1): 95-113.
Henn, Matt; Sloam, James and Nunes, Ana (2022): “Young cosmopolitans and environmental politics: how postmaterialist values inform and shape youth engagement in environmental politics”. In: Journal of Youth Studies 25 (6): 709-729.
Kafková, Petrová (2019): “Environmental Attitudes in an Intergenerational Perspective”. In: národopis / Slovak Ethnology 67 (2): 201-215. https://doi.org/10.2478/se-2019-0011.
Kenny, John (2024): “The Changing Prioritization of Environmental Protection in Britain: 1982–2019”. In: Government and Opposition: An International Journal of Comparative Politics 59 (1): 168-186.
Kenny, John and Langsæether, Peter Egge (2023): “Environmentalism as an independent dimension of political preferences”. In: European Journal of Political Research 62 (4): 1031-1053.
Kirbiš, Andrej (2023): “Environmental Attitudes among Youth: How Much Do the Educational Characteristics of Parents and Young People Matter?”. In: Sustainability 15 (15): 1-14.
Lapatinas, Athanasios; Litina, Anastasia and Zanaj, Skerdilajda (2021): “The Impact of Economic Complexity on the Formation of Environmental Culture”. In: Sustainability 13 (2): 1-25.
Lettinga, N.; Jacquet, P. O.; André, J.-B.; Baumard, N. and Chevallier, C. (2020): “Environmental harshness is associated with lower investment in collective actions”. In: PLoS ONE 15 (7): 1-38. First published online: June 6, 2019, https://doi.org/10.1101/663518
Lettinga, N.; Jacquet, P. O.; André, J.-B.; Baumand, N. and Chevallier, C. (2021): “Environmental adversity is associated with lower investment in collective actions”. In: PLOS ONE 15 (7): 1-23. https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0236715
Mannoni, Elisabetta (2021): “Do cognitive biases condition environmental concern? The case of Italy and Spain”. In: Cuadernos de Gobierno y Administración Pública 8 (1): 1-14.
Ortega Egea, José M. and García de Frutos, Nieves (2020): “Behavioral prediction of environmentally oriented anticonsumption and consumption: A multilevel study of five eurobarometer surveys”. In: Psychology & Marketing 37 (2018-5): 308-325. First published online: November 26, 2019, https://doi.org/10.1002/mar.21302
Ortega-Gil, Manuela; Cortés-Sierra, Georgina and ElHichou-Ahmed, Chaima (2021): “The Effect of Environmental Degradation, Climate Change, and the European Green Deal Tools on Life Satisfaction”. In: Energies 14 (18): 1-14.
Ortega-Gil, Manuela; Mata García, Antonio and ElHichou-Ahmed, Chaima (2021): “The Effect of Ageing, Gender and Environmental Problems in Subjective Well-Being”. In: Land 10 (12): 1-14.
Pastarmadzhieva, Daniela and Angelova, Mina (2022): “Transformation of social values in the process of industrialization and its effect on environmental protection”. In: AIP Conference Proceedings 2449 (1).
Petrescu-Mag, Ruxandra Malina; Ana, Adrian; Vermeir, Iris and Petrescu, Dacinia Crina (2020): “Beliefs and Actions Towards an Environmental Ethical Life: The Christianity-Environment Nexus Reflected in a Cross-National Analysis”. In: Journal of Agricultural and Environmental Ethics 33: 421–446. First published online: October 28, 2020, https://doi.org/10.1007/s10806-020-09832-1.
Ringqvist, Josef (2022): “Union membership and the willingness to prioritize environmental protection above growth and jobs: A multi-level analysis covering 22 European countries”. In: British Journal of Industrial Relations 60 (3): 662-682.
Roszczyńska-Kurasińska, Magdalena and Wróblewska, Nina (2023): “Technological Innovations for Citizen Environmental Participation: Case of Poland”. In: Sustainability 15 (6): 1-19.
Rydzewski, Paweł (2021): “Between Environmental Protection and Technology: Europeans’ Ecological Attitudes”. In: International Journal of Conservation Science 12 (Special Issue 1): 781-792.
Schaub, Sergei (2022): “Global relationships between time preference and environmental policy performance”. In: Environmental Science & Policy 128: 102-109.
Spoon, Jae-Jae and Williams, Christopher J. (2023): “Environmental chauvinism? Explaining issue expansion among nonmainstream parties”. In: Party Politics 29 (6): 1077-1087.
Tampakis, Ivaylo Nachev Kostas and Ventis, Haralambos (2022): “Ecology and Environment from an Orthodox Perspective: Current Encounters in Bulgaria”. In: Orthodox Christianity and Modern Science: Past, Present and Future, edited by Ivaylo Nachev Kostas Tampakis and Haralambos Ventis, 53-61. Turnhout: Brepols Publishers.
References
- Inglehart, R. (1997). Modernization and Postmodernization: Cultural, Economic, and Political Change in 43 Societies. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press
Halman, L., Reeskens, T., Sieben, I., and M. van Zundert (2022). Atlas of European Values: Change and Continuity in Turbulent Times. Tilburg: Open Press Tilburg University ↩︎