Authors

• Hyry, Jaakko (Kantar TNS Finland)

Keywords

climate, climate change, consumer behaviour, driving, energy, energy consumption, energy policy, energy transition, environment policy, environmental awareness, greenhouse effect, politics, power industry, sustainability

Abstract

The Climate Barometer 2019 survey investigated Finnish attitudes towards climate change. Main themes of the survey included attitudes towards climate change, climate policy, and the effect of climate change on consumer behaviour. The data were collected by Kantar TNS Finland, and the survey was commissioned and funded by the Finnish Ministry of the Environment (project number: YM037:00/2018)

The respondents' opinions on the effects of climate change now and in the future were charted with questions on, for example, whether climate change posed an economic threat to Finland, whether it was urgent to slow down climate change, and whether climate would cause significant harm to the respondents or to the next generation. The topic of climate policy was covered with questions such as whether the Finnish government should make a more active effort to slow down climate change, whether taxes on fossil fuels should be increased, and whether the percentage of green energy consumption in Finland should be increased regardless of the impact that this would have on energy prices.

Next, the respondents were surveyed about the measures they had already taken or were planning to take in the next five years to decrease their environmental footprint and to slow down climate change (e.g. cutting back on their electricity use, switching to green energy, voting for parliamentary election candidates who work on climate change issues, carbon offsetting, reducing air travel, giving up private car use, or purchasing an electric car). The respondents were also asked whether they had travelled by plane in the last year.

Views on why Finland had not succeeded in slowing down climate change and reducing emissions as fast as necessary were examined. The respondents were asked to identify which factors (e.g. people in Finland are resistant to changing their consumer habits, the prohibitive cost of environmentally friendly products and services, lack of information, policy-makers are not willing to make decisions that risk their re-election) had prevented Finland from reaching targets related to slowing down climate change.

Background variables included variables related to device used to respond to the survey, date of response, respondent's gender, age group, type of accommodation, municipality and region (NUTS2 and NUTS3) of residence, political party identification, household composition, occupation group, and perceived financial situation of household.