Germans ready to change habits to reduce emissions – EIB survey

Most people in Germany are ready to implement changes to their lifestyle in order to reduce their individual impact on the climate, a survey commissioned by the European Investment Bank (EIB) has found. According to the survey, 80 percent of respondents said they would be ready to take fewer flights and replace air travel entirely with train travel if the journey takes less than five hours. Moreover, 75 percent answered they would be ready to or already are using their heating less at home during winter and 93 percent said they were planning to buy fewer plastic products. Additionally, 72 percent of surveyed men and 85 percent of women said they are ready to eat less red meat to cut greenhouse gases. If looked at by age groups, 85 percent of respondents aged between 15 and 29 years said they would boycott brands that "strongly" contribute to climate change and 70 percent said they already have or plan to take part in climate action protests, much more than in the 30 to 64 years age group, in which only 51 percent said they actively support such protests. At the same time, only 55 percent said they are regularly using public transport services instead of their car, far below the European average of 64 percent, the EIB said.

The EIB survey was carried out in parallel among a total of 30,000 people from Europe, the USA and China and focused on individual attitudes towards climate action. According to the investment bank, most respondents in the regions agreed on using less plastic (USA 81%, China 98%, Europe 93%) but, for example, were much more split over the question whether they would put their money into green investment funds (USA 56%, China 86%, Europe 52%).