Contents
Title
Is Climate Change More Serious than International Terrorism? Evidence from European Countries
Author
Cristina Andreea NICOLAE, Mihai-Ioan ROȘCA
Classification JEL
M31.
Abstract
Climate change is one of the greatest threats to the environment and life on Earth. Extreme weather and climate events, such as wildlife fires, heatwaves or flooding are becoming increasingly common both in Europe and the rest of the world. Therefore, the main goal of this study is to investigate citizens’ perceptions and awareness of climate change across Europe in the wake of this global climate crisis. The main items analysed are awareness of climate change, perceived seriousness of climate change and pro-environmental behaviour. The main results highlighted that almost 8 in 10 Europeans consider climate change to be a very serious problem and the majority of them ranked it as the 2nd most serious global issue below poverty and hunger and above international terrorism. Data analysis also revealed that people are taking more individual actions to fight climate change compared to previous years. The data analysed is part of the Eurobarometer 91.3 survey from 2019. Main similarities and differences are explored between countries revealing the heterogeneous nature of public attitudes towards climate change. Comparisons are drawn based on various factors, including socio-economic context and level of exposure to extreme weather events. These findings have important implications for policy makers and can be used as support for developing specific European and local initiatives aimed at raising awareness and education on climate change topics.
Keywords
Climate change, awareness, Europe, global warming, environmental crisis.
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