Previous UK Surveys 2005 - Public Perceptions of Nuclear Power, Climate

Change and Energy Options in Britain

2010 - Perceptions of Climate Change and Energy

Futures in Britain

2011 - Climate Science, the Public and the News Media.

2012 - Transforming the UK Energy System: Public

Values, Attitudes and Acceptability

2013 - Public Attitudes to Nuclear Power and Climate

Change in Britain Two Years after Fukushima

2014 - Public Perceptions of Climate Change in

Britain following the 2013/2014 Winter Flooding

GermanyKey Events

1983 Green Party enters parliament

1990 Foundation of “Der Grüne Punkt” recycling company

1991 Act on the sale of electricity to the grid

1998 Social Democrats and Green Party coalition formed

2000 Renewable Energy Sources Act

2002 Flooding of Elbe

2006 Birth of polar bear Knut

2010 New government decided to slow down the phase out

of nuclear power

2011 Government reinstates decision to phase out nuclear

energy by 2022 following the Fukushima accident

Media

Climate change scepticism does not get much media

coverage: 2% daily newspaper articles and 10% weekly

news magazines mention climate sceptics or arguments

(Arlt and Wolling, 2012).

United KingdomKey Events

1986 Privatisation of British Gas,

1988 Margaret Thatcher’s Climate Change speech

1990 Start of privatisation of electricity industry

2008 UK Climate Change Act

2009 Climategate

2014 Major flooding's across the UK

2015 Re-election of Conservative government

Cultural Context

Nuclear power is politically presented as part of the solution to CO2

reductions – the public widely accept this “necessity” despite a

clear preference for renewable energy sources.

Climate scepticism in the UK, while still in a very small minority

amongst the public, increases between 2007 and 2010 (Poortinga

et al., 2011).

Media

Media reporting on climate change decreased after peak in 2009.

However, overall, coverage of climate change is higher than in

other western countries. UK tabloid newspapers mainly frame the

topic through weather events, charismatic megafauna, and the

movements of political actors and rhetoric.

France2003 heatwave kills 15K people across France, leading to re-evaluation of natural hazard

response policies.

Low greenhouse gas emission rates per capita compared to other Western countries reflect

reliance on nuclear power. New legislation sets ambitious targets:

• 50% reduction of greenhouse gas emission by 2050

• increase proportion of renewable energy to 32% by 2030 (19.5% in 2014)

• reduce proportion of nuclear power to 50% by 2025 (75% in 2014)

Aims of the EPCC Project• Conduct nationally representative surveys of public

opinion on climate change and energy in Germany,

France, Norway & UK. (Data collection in January –

April 2016).•

• Carry out in-depth analyses of the socio-political

context in each participating country.

• Produce and disseminate recommendations for

public engagement at the national and European

level.

Socio-Political Context

The EPCC SurveyParticipants: We will recruit 1000 participants in each country (total n=4,000). Participants

will be recruited using a multi-stage sampling strategy to ensure that each sub-sample is

nationally representative.

Procedure: The survey will be administered using face-to-face interviews. We expect the

survey to consists of 55-70 closed-ended items and 2-3 open ended questions. The field

work is scheduled to take place January-April 2016.

Themes: • Perceptions of climate change and energy• Value orientations, cultural worldviews, and social representations• Socio-political context

Project Partners: Cardiff University (Coordinator), University of Stuttgart, University of Bergen, Symlog Institute Paris. Funded by the Research Councils of the participating countries under the JPI Climate Initiative.

International Events1986 Chernobyl accident in Ukraine

1990 IPCC First Assessment Report

1992 UNCED conference in Rio

1995 IPCC Second Assessment Report

1997 Kyoto Protocol

2011 IPCC Third Assessment Report

2006 Stern Review

2007 Release of “An Inconvenient Truth”

2007 EU energy and carbon targets

2007 IPCC Fourth Assessment Report

2009 COP in Copenhagen

2011 Fukushima accident in Japan

NorwayKey Events

1882 Europe's’ first hydroelectric power plant built

1969 Discovery of North Sea Oil

1972 Establishment of Statoil

2011 Discovery of Johan Sverdrup oil field

Cultural Context

High trust in “the state” leads to a governance trap – political

inaction is interpreted as evidence for climate change being

exaggerated by media and scientists (Ryghaug et al., 2011).

National identity is strongly associated with being an

environmentally friendly country, e.g. based on a strong bond with

nature and renewables as main energy source – Oil production as

another important component of national identity is not seen is

controversy.

Media

Blogs and social media are important sources of information

about climate change, more important than newspapers, radio,

TV, scientific publications (Norwegian Citizen Panel, 2014;

http://www.uib.no/en/citizen).

Selected ReferencesArlt, D., & Wolling, J. (2012). Die Presseberichterstattung über die Weltklimakonferenz in Kopenhagen. Normative

Anforderungen und empirische Befunde. In: Studies in Communication/ Media. 1(2), 283–297.

Bostrom, A., O’Connor, R. E., Böhm, G. et al. (2012). Causal thinking and support for climate change policies:

International survey findings. Global Environmental Change, 22(1), 210-222.

Capstick, S., Whitmarsh, L., Poortinga, W., Pidgeon, N., & Upham, P. (2015). International trends in public

perceptions of climate change over the past quarter century. Wiley Int Reviews: Climate Change, 6(1), 35-61.

Poortinga, W., Spence, A., Whitmarsh, L., Capstick, S., & Pidgeon, N. F. (2011). Uncertain climate: An investigation

into public scepticism about anthropogenic climate change. Global Environmental Change, 21(3), 1015-1024.

Poumadere, M., Mays, C., Le Mer, S., & Blong, R. (2005). The 2003 heat wave in France: dangerous climate

change here and now. Risk analysis, 25(6), 1483-1494.

Renn, O., Arnold, A., Schetula, V., & Schweizer, P. J. (2011). Das Ringen der Sozialwissenschaften um ihre Rolle in

der Klimawandeldebatte. Soziologische Revue Besprechungen neuer Literatur, 34(4), 463-472.

Ryghaug, M., Holtan Sørensen, K., & Næss, R. (2011). Making sense of global warming: Norwegians appropriating

knowledge of anthropogenic climate change. Public Understanding of Science, 20(6), 778-795

Trend Scepticism

“As far as you know do you personally think the

world’s climate is changing or not?”