Climate change becomes bigger priority for German voters following floods – survey

A larger number of German voters have listed climate change as a top priority following the devastating floods in Rhineland-Palatinate and North Rhine-Westphalia, Renate Köcher, managing director of polling group Allensbach Institute for Demoscopy, writes in Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung (FAZ). According to a survey by the organisation, 52 percent say they are “very concerned” about climate change, compared to 46 percent at the beginning of the year. The majority said they followed coverage of the floods intensely, and 62 percent said they saw a direct relationship between the catastrophe and climate change. However, these numbers are still not as high as 2019, prior to the pandemic hitting, when 56 percent of voters said they were “very concerned” about climate change. “The long-term trend shows this concern is volatile,” Köcher writes.

Polls have revealed that voters in Germany and across Europe increasingly see climate change as the single most serious issue facing the world. This number is highest in Sweden (43 percent) and Denmark (35 percent), and lowest in Italy (7 percent) and Bulgaria (5 percent). In Germany it is not clear whether the Green Party will benefit from the increased concern about extreme weather events and climate change in the September general elections. In the polls, the party has remained in second place behind the conservatives CDU-CSU alliance and their chancellor candidate Armin Laschet who is currently state premier in North Rhine-Westphalia.