People in Ireland continue to be positive about benefits of climate action
The results of the second wave of the EPA’s Climate Change in the Irish Mind survey show:
- Consistent with the previous study, findings show widespread agreement on many climate change attitudes and strong majority support for climate action.
- 81 percent of people in Ireland are worried about climate change and 75 percent think extreme weather poses a moderate or high risk to their community over the next 10 years, with increases in worry in relation to severe storms (74 percent) and extreme heat (54 percent).
- 89 percent report that climate change is important to them personally and 79 percent say climate change should be either a “very high” or “high” priority for Government, with high overall support for a range of climate action policies.
- Irish people think that climate action will increase economic growth and create jobs (56 percent), and actions to reduce climate change will improve quality of life in Ireland (74 percent).
The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) has today published initial results from the second wave of its ‘Climate Change in the Irish Mind’ project (CCIM). This work was undertaken by the EPA and the Yale University Program on Climate Change Communication in support of the National Dialogue on Climate Action.
The findings of the nationally representative survey show broad consistency with the 2021 study, including continued high level of climate awareness (95 percent), acceptance of human causation (92 percent) and the personal importance (89 percent) of climate change. Key changes include an increase in worry about severe storms (74 percent) and extreme heat (54 percent) and a large increase in people who hear about climate change in the media once a week or more often (73 percent).
Speaking about the report Laura Burke, Director General of the EPA said:
“We know that Ireland is experiencing the impacts of climate change. These findings highlight that Irish people are aware of these impacts and are worried about the harm it may cause. People are engaged with this issue, talking about it with their friends and families and hearing about it frequently in the media.
She added:
“Despite the many challenges, including cost of living increases, people remain positive about the benefits of climate action for our economy and quality of life. There continues to be majority support for a range of climate policies. In particular, we see overwhelming support for improved public transport and renewable energy, which can deliver significant emissions reductions, air quality improvements as well as delivering cost savings for individuals.”
There has been an increase in the number of people who reported hearing weekly about climate change in the media from 51 percent in 2021 to 74 percent in 2023. This is aligned with high levels of public trust in mainstream media (68 percent) and in journalists (68 percent) on the topic of climate change. Furthermore, over 80 percent of people trust scientists, the Irish EPA, educators, family and friends, television weather reporters, and environmental NGOs on the topic of climate change.
A large majority of Irish people (79 percent) say climate change should be either a “very high” or “high” priority for Government. In addition, a majority of people in Ireland believe climate action will provide opportunities to create new jobs (56 percent) and improved quality of life (74 percent). While still receiving majority support, two policies “higher taxes on cars that use petrol or diesel”, and “banning peat, coal, and oil for home heating” received weaker support from those who had experienced economic difficulties. However, the findings show that those who reported economic difficulties in the last year expressed the same levels of worry and feelings of personal importance about climate change as those who experienced no difficulties.
Speaking about the report, the Minister for the Environment, Climate and Communications, Eamon Ryan TD said:
“The findings of this second Climate Change in the Irish Mind survey are very encouraging. It confirms that Irish people have a good understanding of the complex issues of climate change, that they are concerned about its effects on their lives, but importantly that they believe that taking climate action can make our country more resilient, creating jobs and improving our quality of life.
“This survey also shows us that climate is not an issue that divides people as much as it unites us. It also underlines the importance of ongoing engagement and communications. As a Government, we must listen and act so that we are supporting people to take climate action that works for their community — from the ground up. Climate action won’t work if it’s a top-down, blame or shame approach. Our transition to a new way of doing things must be fair, it must involve everyone and it must ensure that things will be better.”
Climate Change in the Irish Mind
The ‘Climate Change in the Irish Mind’ project is an ongoing study of the Irish population’s beliefs, attitudes, policy preferences, and behaviours regarding climate change. The project aims to develop a better understanding of the Irish population by conducting an ongoing study of climate change beliefs, risk perceptions, policy preferences, and behaviours of the Irish public towards climate change. Wave 1 of the project revealed near nationwide agreement on many climate change attitudes and strong majority support for climate action.
This work was undertaken by EPA and our academic partner Yale Program on Climate Change Communications (YPCCC) in support of the National Dialogue on Climate Action.
This is the first nationally representative survey of its kind in Ireland which is now in its second wave. The approach to the project is based on the established methodology of the “Climate Change in the American Mind” survey conducted by the Yale Program on Climate Change Communication and the George Mason University Centre for Climate Change Communication, which was tailored to meet Ireland’s particular socio/economic context.
The data in this report are based on a representative survey of 1,330 residents of the Republic of Ireland, aged 18 and older. The survey was fielded by Behaviour & Attitudes between the 30th of August to the 6th of October 2023. All questionnaires were administered by call agents using computer-assisted telephone interviewing (CATI) software. The survey took, on average, 25 minutes to complete.
Survey respondents were recruited using a random digit dial sample of live Irish telephone numbers. About 80 percent of survey respondents were reached through mobile phone numbers and 20 percent through landline phone numbers. A total of 22,862 numbers were dialled and 1,355 interviews were completed (including 25 pilot interviews to test survey wording and timing), for a response rate of 6 percent. Gender, age, work status, and region quotas were used to ensure sample representativeness. Key demographic variables were also weighted, post survey, to match Central Statistics Office norms.
The next report in this series, will focus on a segmentation of the Irish population and is expected in Quarter 2 of 2024. Full details of all Climate Change in the Irish Mind reports maps and analysis are available on the CCIM project page.
