The climate is changing and, although Western societies are aware of this, differences still exist between public opinions as to the causes, consequences and ways of addressing climate change. There are still some countries where most people believe that the Earth’s climate evolves naturally, while others agree with the vast majority of scientists that the main cause is attributable to humans, who will also be the main losers unless this environmental crisis is halted.

The latter includes Spain, the Western country with the greatest awareness regarding climate change, the country most aware of the devastating consequences on human life and the one that shows the greatest will to halt this. This is reflected in the Open Society Foundations study of nine countries – the United States, France, the United Kingdom, Germany, Italy, Sweden, Poland and the Czech Republic, together with Spain – published exclusively in yesterday’s La Vanguardia.

According to this study, 71% of Spanish people agree with the scientists that the climate crisis is the consequence of human activity, the highest percentage from among the countries analysed. Those who believe that humans are primarily responsible for the climate crisis are also in a majority in Italy (62%), Germany (58%), Sweden (55%) and the United Kingdom (52%), unlike the USA, France, the Czech Republic and Poland, where the majority of the population surveyed consider that climate change is mainly due to natural evolution.

Spaniards, together with the French, Germans and Italians, are also among those who are clearest that climate change will affect their lives and those of their families. 78% of those surveyed in our country believe this, divided between those who consider that their lives will change a little and that they will have to make some changes (42%), those who feel that their lives will be greatly changed (23%), and those who believe that their lives will become so tough that they will have problems in obtaining what is essential (13%). Only 11% feel that their lives will remain unchanged, among which 2% feel they will actually improve.

At the other extreme is the Czech Republic, where 28% of people feel that their lives will remain unchanged, including 2% that feel they will even improve with climate change.

According to the Open Society Foundations study, the Spanish people are also the best informed and best versed regarding the climate crisis (79%). They are also those that mainly believe it is possible to reverse its effects provided that we invoke collective action – 80% of those surveyed. They are followed by Italy, with 73%, compared with Sweden and the Czech Republic, where only 47% and 46% respectively believe that we must do whatever is in our hands to overcome the climate crisis. Most of those surveyed in these countries believe that it is already impossible to fight climate change, and the only thing we can do is adapt, or simply nothing, since things will not get worse if the temperature rises a few degrees.

Precisely the fact that countries such as Sweden and the Czech Republic have colder temperatures than other countries, like Spain and Italy, is reflected, as mentioned in La Vanguardia, in a predominance of personal perception over scientific knowledge. In Mediterranean countries, we are aware that this may lead to warner summers, rises in the sea level, drought, etc., while in colder countries the effects do not seem so extreme.

Spain also appears as the country in which the people are most in favour of changing habits to halt the climate crisis. Reducing the use of plastics is the issue that people have most taken on-board, both in our country and in the rest of the countries under study. 61% of those surveyed in the nine countries now buy less plastic, while another 24% are thinking of doing so soon.  They are also increasingly more willing to use the car and the plane less often, although what is hardest is to reduce the consumption of meat and dairy produce, and change to an electricity company that produces sustainable energy.  

Most people in the countries under study, except Italy, France and the Czech Republic, are also willing to pay higher taxes to combat climate change. In Spain, 32% of the population is in favour of this kind of tax, while 19% looked positively at paying even more.