People in Ireland show high levels of concern about climate change and support climate action, yet think that people in other countries will be more impacted in the future than Irish people in the here and now.
The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) has announced the ‘Climate Change in the Irish Mind’ project, a baseline study of Irish people’s beliefs, policy preferences, attitudes, and behaviours concerning the environmental crisis.
The work for this baseline study has been undertaken by the EPA and the Yale Program on Climate Change Communication in support of the National Dialogue on Climate Change.
The project is based on the established methodology of the ‘Climate Change in the American Mind’ survey carried out by the Yale Program on Climate Change Communication and the George Mason University Centre for Climate Change Communication. The fieldwork was carried out in 2021 by the survey company Behaviours & Attitudes, following a recognised industry standard.
It was conducted with a representative sample of Irish people aged 18 years and older. The survey saw 4,030 interviews completed and contained a series of topics and themes. Such themes include worry about climate impacts/extreme weather, beliefs, risk perceptions, policy support, behaviours (consumer and political), norms, personal experience of climate change, and media sources.
A large majority of people (85%) in Ireland are concerned and worried about climate change.
Policy Support
The key overall findings for the policy support topic were that most Irish people support climate action policy. It was found that 79 per cent of Irish people say climate change should either be a ‘very high’ or ‘high’ priority for the Government.
Most of these individuals also support spending carbon tax revenues on programmes to reduce carbon emissions and prepare for climate change impacts.
Across four specific policy areas – banning peat, coal, and oil; higher taxes on cars that use petrol and diesel; reducing cattle herd size; and building new infrastructure to support reinvested use of renewable energy - the level of national opposition was significant.
It was between 32 and 36 per cent for the first three and 15 per cent for building new infrastructure to support reinvested use of renewable energy.
One hypothesis was that a core group of adults were commonly in opposition to all of these policies. However, when cross-analysed, it emerged that the opposition was broader than initially expected. In other words, 62 per cent of Irish adults were opposed to at least one of the policy areas, indicating opposition was driven by individual issues.
“The report also shows that there is an 'othering’ or disconnection from the impacts of climate change. People believe that it will harm people in the future, far away, animals and plants, other people, and lastly, themselves personally”, said Dr Eimear Cotter, Director of the EPA’s Office of Evidence & Assessment.
Risk Perceptions
The overall findings for the risk perceptions topic were that over four in ten Irish people think people in Ireland are currently being harmed by climate change.
Most people also believe they will be harmed by climate change but feel others will be more affected. A large majority of people (85%) in Ireland are concerned and worried about climate change.
This figure includes 37 per cent who describe themselves as ‘very worried’. It was found that 22 per cent of people believe climate change will start to harm people in Ireland in the next ten years.
Few people (2%) think climate change will ever harm people in Ireland or will harm them only in the very distant future, for example, in 50 (9%) or 100 (4%) years.
Nearly all Irish people feel that future generations of people (95%), people in developing countries (94%), and plant and animal species (94%) will be harmed by a ‘great deal’ or a ‘moderate amount’ by the environmental crisis.
Meanwhile, 63 per cent think they will be harmed by climate change, and 16 per cent believe climate change will harm them significantly.
Roughly eight in ten believe people in Ireland will be harmed, seven in ten or more feel their family, people in their community (75%), and the Irish way of life (72%) will be harmed. Two in three people believe Irish historic sites (66%) will be affected by climate change.
The results reveal a gap between the projected harmful effect on ‘us’ versus ‘others’, which is highly consistent by age.
79% of Irish people say climate change should either be a ‘very high’ or ‘high’ priority for the government.
Younger adults consistently exhibited significantly higher levels of concern and risk perceptions. This attitude difference is particularly evident between the two youngest age groups (much higher 18-24 years vs 25- 34 years). It was also discovered that young women are disproportionately concerned about climate change.
Consumer behaviours in the past 12 months also reveal young adults exhibit a consistency between their attitudes and behaviours concerning sustainability.
However, intentions for the next 12 months show slight age variation, with young adults conforming to the strong national average. This could indicate young adults are content with their current activity levels. It was found that the age group most concerned about climate change is also the least likely to perceive it as an immediate threat.
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