Key takeaways
- Most Europeans in the countries surveyed are worried about climate change
- Europeans tend to think that the worst impacts of climate change can only be averted if a drastic change in approach is taken
- Only a minority of Europeans think the responsibility for tackling climate change rests more with rich countries
- A majority in Germany, Denmark and Spain say that the EU should make decisions on climate change on behalf of member countries
The 10th of November will see world leaders gather in the Brazilian city of Belém for the UN's annual climate summit, COP30. Ahead of this, YouGov's European polling examines attitudes to climate change and how to tackle it in Britain, Denmark, France, Germany, Italy and Spain.
The results show that the majority of Europeans are worried about climate change (62-76%), figures which have stayed stable over the last six months. Germans and Britons are the most likely to say that they are not currently worried about climate change and its effects with more than a third (34-35%) expressing this view.
How widespread is climate scepticism in Western Europe?
With Donald Trump last month having described climate change as “the greatest con job ever perpetrated on the world,” UN General Secretary António Guterres has called for a “fight” against climate disinformation. The results show that the US president’s view is only held by a minority in Western Europe, with between 14-22% saying that climate change is not caused by human activity and 1-5% saying it is not taking place at all.
By contrast, a sizeable majority of adults in each country (68-76%) appear to side with Guterres in believing that the world’s climate is changing as a result of human activity.
Is it too late to avoid the worst effects of climate change?
At the time of COP27, Guterres described humanity as being “on the highway to climate hell with our foot still on the accelerator”, but that “a window of opportunity remains open, but only a narrow shaft of light remains”. This sentiment appears to be largely shared by Western Europeans, with between 46-65% in each country believing we are still able to avoid the worst effects of climate change but only with a drastic change in the steps taken.
In most of the countries surveyed, between 14-19% already believe it is too late to avert the worst impacts of climate change, with the Spanish an exception at just 8%. Approximately 12-18% take the opposite view, believing that the current path is enough to see off the worst potential impacts.
How should we tackle climate change in terms of international relations?
In line with the motto of COP30, “Global Mutirão” which translates as “global collective effort,” there is broad consensus among Western Europeans that humanity will be more effective in tackling climate change if we work together with other countries, with more than three quarters (76-86%) in each country sharing this view.
Although rich countries account for almost two thirds of cumulative historical carbon emissions, less than one in four (17-23%) in Western Europe believe that wealthy countries should take on most of the responsibility of tackling climate change.
Despite most Europeans saying countries should work together to tackle climate change, there is division on what the extent of the EU's role in tackling climate change should be.
France and Italy are the most reluctant for the EU to make decisions about how to tackle climate change on behalf of its member nations, with approximately two in five (40% in Italy and 38% in France) believing that each nation’s government should make such decisions independently of the EU.
Meanwhile, a majority in Germany (55%), Denmark (56%) and Spain (65%) say that the EU should be prominent in climate change decision making.
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