European Perceptions of Climate Change (EPCC)
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European Perceptions of Climate Change (EPCC) Socio-political profiles to inform a cross-national survey in France, Germany, Norway and the UK June 2016 CLIMATE outreach formerly COIN About the EPCC project The European Perceptions of Climate Change Project (EPCC) is coordinated by Cardiff University and forms part of the Joint Project Initiative-Climate Change (JPI-Climate - see www.jpi-climate.eu), a research programme uniting National Research Councils across Europe. Inter-disciplinary teams from the UK, Germany, France and Norway are individually funded to collaborate in the design and analysis of a major comparative survey of climate and energy beliefs amongst the public in these 4 participating nations. This research project has been supported through JPI Climate Programme and associated grants from Cardiff University Sustainable Places Research Institute, School of Psychology and the Economic & Social Research Council, ESRC (ES/M009505/1). This research project has been co-funded by France’s Agence Nationale de la Recherche under grant n° ANR-14-JCLI-0003. This research project has been funded under the KLIMAFORSK programme of the Norwegian Research Council (NFR; project number 244904). This research project has been funded under the cooperation agreement between Statoil and the University of Bergen (Akademiaavtale; project number 803589). The research project has been funded by the German Federal Ministry of Education and Research (funding code: 01UV1403). Acknowledgements Many thanks to the members of our International Stakeholder Advisory Panel: Ewan Bennie, Department for Energy and Climate Change Nick Molho, Aldersgate Group Christian Teriete, Global Climate Change Alliance / European Climate Foundation Caroline Lee, Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development / International Energy Agency Tom Brookes, European Climate Foundation Henri Boyé, Former Environment and Sustainable Development Council Anders Nordeng, Thomson Reuters Point Carbon Nils Tore Skogland, Friends of the Earth Norway Karen Louise Nybø, Hordaland County Council Sølve Sondbø, Hordaland County Council Christopher Brandt, Climate Concept Foundation Manfred Treber, Germanwatch Project team Authors Cardiff University, UK (Coordinator) Nick Pidgeon, Lead Investigator - [email protected] Wouter Poortinga - [email protected] Katharine Steentjes - [email protected] Climate Outreach, UK Adam Corner - [email protected] Institut Symlog, France Claire Mays - [email protected] Marc Poumadère - [email protected] Rokkan Centre for Social Studies, Norway Endre Tvinnereim - [email protected] University of Bergen, Norway Gisela Böhm - [email protected] University of Stuttgart, Germany Annika Arnold - [email protected] Dirk Scheer - [email protected] Marco Sonnberger - [email protected] Editing & Production Anna MacPhail, Project Coordinator, Climate Outreach - [email protected] Olga Roberts, former Project Coordinator, Climate Outreach Elise de Laigue, Designer, Explore Communications - [email protected] About Climate Outreach Climate Outreach (formerly COIN) is a charity focused on building cross-societal acceptance of the need to tackle climate change. We have over 10 years of experience helping our partners to talk and think about climate change in ways that reflect their individual values, interests and ways of seeing the world. We work with a wide range of partners including central, regional and local governments, charities, business, faith organisations and youth groups. The Old Music Hall, 106-108 Cowley Road, Oxford OX4 1JE, UK +44 (0) 1865 403 334 @ClimateOutreach @ [email protected] f Climate Outreach www.climateoutreach.org in Climate Outreach Cite as: Arnold, A., Böhm, G., Corner, A., Mays, C., Pidgeon, N., Poortinga, W., Poumadère, M., Scheer, D., Sonnberger, M., Steentjes, K., Tvinnereim, E. (2016). European Perceptions of Climate Change. Socio-political profiles to inform a cross- national survey in France, Germany, Norway and the UK. Oxford: Climate Outreach. Cover photos by johndal and Kristian Buus. JUNE 2016 Contents Executive summary............................................................................................................................... 5 France .................................................................................................................................................................6 Germany ............................................................................................................................................................. 7 Norway ...............................................................................................................................................................8 UK ........................................................................................................................................................................9 Key concepts to inform the survey design .........................................................................................10 Climate & energy in context ......................................................................................................................... 10 National energy policies ................................................................................................................................ 10 Media & other cultural influences .................................................................................................................11 Climate impacts ................................................................................................................................................11 Personal engagement .....................................................................................................................................12 Climate scepticism & environmentalism ....................................................................................................12 Introduction: climate change and the European public ....................................................................13 France: A socio-political profile ..........................................................................................................16 Historical, cultural and policy context.........................................................................................................16 Key actors in the French context ................................................................................................................ 20 Key climate and energy-related events in France ...................................................................................25 Anticipated consequences of climate change in France ........................................................................28 Media reporting in France .............................................................................................................................28 Germany: A socio-political profile ......................................................................................................31 Historical, cultural and policy context.........................................................................................................31 Key actors in the German context ...............................................................................................................33 Key climate and energy-related events in Germany ...............................................................................36 Anticipated consequences of climate change in Germany ....................................................................38 Media reporting in Germany ........................................................................................................................39 Example for illustration: Coal extraction in Germany .............................................................................42 Norway: A socio-political profile ....................................................................................................... 43 Historical, cultural & policy context ...........................................................................................................43 Key actors in the Norwegian context .........................................................................................................45 Key climate and energy-related events in Norway .................................................................................49 Anticipated consequences of climate change in Norway ..................................................................... 50 Media reporting in Norway ...........................................................................................................................51 Norway and COP21 .........................................................................................................................................51 UK: A socio-political profile ............................................................................................................... 53 Historical, cultural & policy context ...........................................................................................................53 Key actors in the British context ..................................................................................................................57 Key climate and energy-related events in the UK ...................................................................................59