A shared challenge: Attitudes about climate action in France and Germany

Like in most other European countries, climate change and other environmental issues are regularly listed among the most pressing issues that German and French citizens think their governments need to tackle. In a 2021 Eurobarometer Special survey of the EU’s 27 member states on attitudes towards climate action, roughly 80 percent of respondents in France and Germany agreed with the statement that climate change poses “a very serious problem” and needs to be addressed with urgency. In Germany, climate change topped the list of urgent global challenges, with 28 percent of respondents saying that climate change is the most serious problem facing the planet. This share was significantly higher than in France, where 18 percent of respondents agreed, on par with the EU average. Hunger and water scarcity were the greatest global concerns for French respondents.

Over 90 percent of respondents in both countries agreed with the idea that greenhouse gases should be reduced to a minimum and the remainder offset to achieve the EU goal of climate neutrality by 2050.

The EU is seen as a key actor responsible for taking effective climate action in both Germany and France, as about two thirds of respondents in either country stated in the Eurobarometer survey. Around 81 percent of respondents in both countries in a bi-national survey by the German Heinrich Böll Foundation and the French Ecological Policy Foundation said that Franco-German cooperation is indispensable for the success of the European Union. Tackling energy security was named as the number-one priority for policymakers in their bilateral efforts, with 47 percent of French and 49 percent of German participants considering it a priority. Effective cooperation on climate action also ranked high and was considered a priority by 31 percent of French and 33 percent of German respondents.

Looking to prevailing public opinion in both countries showed that a coordinated European approach is “indispensable,” said Mathieu Gallard from French pollster Ipsos. The view from France and Germany was that people expect proactive thinking from the Franco-German couple on energy and climate. “This opinion clearly transcends political fault lines in both countries,” Gallard added. 

While survey respondents often generally agree that there is a need to reduce emissions, they are much less likely to align with actual policy proposals to address emissions reduction. However, the containment measures and lockdowns during the coronavirus pandemic in both countries demonstrated that far-reaching changes to lifestyles and consumption habits are possible. Triggered by the imposition of covid restrictions in 2020, France saw a historic fall in its emission of 8.3 percent after adjusting for annual climate variation. Energy consumption in Germany dropped 8 percent in the same year, and greenhouse gas emissions fell about 9 percent.

The idea of energy sufficiency (‘sobriété’) has grown in importance since the forced cuts to consumption that the pandemic ushered in. In contrast to efficiency, it does not denote less energy use for the same level of consumption, but rather reducing energy demand through behaviour change. The 2022 Destin Commun survey found that 73 percent of French people believe that sufficiency is a favourable component of climate action. The RTE survey in the following year  showed that sufficiency has“become widely accepted as a virtuous and necessary approach.” Only a minority associated it with economic decline or a “step backwards,” it concluded.

In Germany, almost 90 percent of respondents in a YouGov survey from December 2022 said they had started to conserve more energy since the beginning of the energy crisis. Sixty percent said they had reduced their demand for heating energy by lowering temperatures or turning off the heating altogether. Forty percent said they are showering, and bathing less often, with only 8 percent stating they do not try to save energy at all.

The Eurobarometer survey probed the measures people were ready to take beyond the immediate impact of the energy crisis. The number-one measure respondents cited in both countries was reducing and recycling waste, which 83 percent of French and 81 percent of German survey participants listed (EU=75%). Only 23 percent in France answered they would regularly use more environmentally friendly alternatives to the car, compared to 51 percent in Germany, considerably above the EU average of 30 percent. Reducing meat consumption was cited as a potential method for reducing personal carbon footprints by a greater share in both countries than the EU average. Forty percent in France and 51 percent in Germany answered that they would consider reducing meat consumption, versus 31 percent for the European average. 

In the OECD survey, attitudes towards potential routes for emission reduction were similar across several categories in both countries. This was notably the case for the introduction of carbon taxes with cash redistribution, which was backed by 29 percent in France and 28 percent in Germany. Perceptions diverged over limiting flying, which 64 percent in Germany and only 56 percent in France supported, and reducing driving, which was supported by 41 percent in Germany and 32 percent in France. Similarly, 38 percent in Germany were in favour of removing subsidies for cattle farming and a 40 percent tax on beef and dairy products, while the figures for France were 28 percent and 29 percent, respectively. 

Both France and Germany have seen a rise in pro-climate movements which are demanding more resolute action on climate, as is the case across much of the rest of the world. Many environmental NGOs in Germany have been vocal proponents of stronger emissions reduction and other sustainability measures for decades. Most NGOs, many of which are active at the regional level and have strong ties to the anti-nuclear movement of the 1970s, have made climate action a cornerstone of their campaigning actions. Successful litigation undertaken by environmental groups led to a court ruling in Germany which triggered the country’s ambitious 2045 climate neutrality target. A highly centralised structure is considered a reason for a high degree of institutionalisation and comparatively weak social entrenchment of environmental groups in France, although this began to change in the 1990s. Many French NGOs have also made climate change a priority for their activities and have led legal initiatives to push the government to take more resolute action.

The Fridays for Future youth protest movement, which has spearheaded calls for stronger climate action in recent years, has made a notable impact in both countries. However, the protest group’s own climate strike statistics suggest a much higher level of engagement in Germany. Between November 2018 and March 2023, Fridays for Future counted 476 climate strikes in France, compared to 1,951 in Germany.

More recently, climate activist groups engaging in more disruptive protest tactics have made an impact in Germany and France alike. The activities of the Letzte Generation (Last Generation) movement in Germany and its French counterpart Soulevement de la Terre (Uprising of the Earth) have caused controversy among citizens, even if these share concerns about a lack of action on climate change. In Germany, members of government – including the Green Party – have criticised some activities of the Letzte Generation, while the organisation is still allowed to operate. The French government banned Soulevement de la Terre in mid-2023, arguing that the group’s actions amounted to violence.

At the same time, both countries have also seen a rise in marked rejection of specific climate policies, and a tendency by political parties, especially from the extreme left and right wing of the spectrum, to capitalise on fears and insecurities associated with emissions reduction efforts.

In France, such dissatisfaction became highly visible in 2018 when the government tried to raise the carbon tax against a backdrop of rising fuel prices, presented as essential to meet its climate commitments. Rural and semi-urban areas lacking strong public transportation would have been hardest hit by the cost increase. An online petition quickly led to long lasting and violent mass demonstrations under the ‘gilets jaunes’ (‘yellow vests’­– a reference to the participants’ dress code of high-visibility vests) movement. The movement was a coalition formed by opposite political extremes (both right and left). As a result of widespread protests across France, the carbon tax was not increased in 2019 for the first time since its creation in 2014, nor was it raised in 2020. The movement pushed government to launch a ‘great national debate’ on public concerns about the cost of sustainability measures, the adoption of a 'Citizens' Convention for Climate’, the creation in April 2019 of an Ecological Defense Council (restricted council of ministers on those issues), and negotiations about a redistributive tax meant to ensure poorer citizens are not disproportionately hard-hit. Marine Le Pen, leader of the far-right party Rassemblement National, has repeatedly appealed to yellow vest members, styling herself as the voice of those resisting climate policies. Indeed, most yellow vest adherents do sympathise with Le Pen’s party, at least according to a 2022 analysis.

In Germany, the far-right party AfD (Alternative for Germany) is the main platform for rejection of climate action. While Germany did not see a protest movement akin to the French yellow vests, the impact of protests in the neighbouring country has been felt also in the German debate, with scientists and government members warning against the repercussions for climate action from a large-scale protest movement. The AfD has actively supported public protest against consumption reduction measures in the energy crisis and has also vocally rejected other energy- and climate-related policies, such as the country’s coal phase-out, the shift to electric mobility or the energy transition in the heating sector.

Helene Miard-Delacroix, political scientist at the Sorbonne University in Paris, said that views from citizens affiliating themselves with right-wing parties showed striking similarities in both countries, creating a “false sense of harmony.” Even though this may suggest that some form of meaningful cooperation could be developed, the prospects of this looked rather slim for the time being, Delacroix stated on the publication of the bi-national survey of the Böll Foundation and the Ecologic Policy Foundation.