Two thirds of Europeans favour stricter rules to curb individual emissions - survey

Two-thirds of the people in Europe (66%) support stricter government measures to change people’s individual behaviour to tackle climate change, according to the second part of the European Investment Bank’s (EIB) climate survey for 2022-2023. The level of support is highest in Portugal (84%), whereas only 48 percent of respondents in the Netherlands are in favour of more government action to push for changes in behaviour. Across all countries surveyed, nearly three-quarters of respondents (72%) are convinced that their own behaviour can make a difference in addressing the climate emergency. A majority of European respondents (56%) say they support a carbon budget system that would allocate each individual a fixed number of yearly credits to be spent on items with a big carbon footprint (non-essential goods, flights, meat, etc.), writes EIB. In comparison, Chinese respondents strongly favour such a measure (83%), while Americans are less supportive, with less than half in favour (49%), it adds.

Polls have revealed that climate has become a top issue almost everywhere across the EU. The EIB – which calls itself the world’s biggest multilateral financial institution and one of the largest providers of climate finance – has annually commissioned its climate survey since 2018. The 2022/2023 edition was released in two parts. While results from the first part, released last year, had put a spotlight on citizens’ views surrounding the impacts of the war in Ukraine and the recent rise in energy prices, today’s release focuses on people’s individual behaviour and the actions they are ready to take to combat climate change.