IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/gam/jsusta/v17y2025i10p4661-d1659255.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Attitudes Towards Climate Change and Energy Demand: Evidence from the European Social Survey

Author

Listed:
  • Giacomo Campagnola

    (Department of Economics, University of Warwick, Coventry CV4 7AL, UK)

  • Bruno S. Sergi

    (Davis Center for Russian and Eurasian Studies, Harvard University, Cambridge, MA 02138, USA
    Department of Economics, University of Messina, Piazza Pugliatti 1, 98122 Messina, Italy)

  • Emiliano Sironi

    (Department of Statistical Sciences, Università Cattolica del Sacro Cuore, Largo Gemelli 1, 20123 Milan, Italy)

Abstract

Climate change is one of the most pressing issues on the public policy agenda. Employing data from rounds 8 and 10 of the European Social Survey, this paper examines the relationship between the perception of Europeans towards climate change and the limitation of energy consumption. An ordered logit model shows that socio-demographic characteristics are strongly related to attitudes towards climate change: female, more educated, and left-leaning respondents display, on average, higher levels of worry and personal responsibility for addressing climate change. However, the relationship between these predictors with greater support for energy reduction measures is non-trivial. Through our unique dataset, the study investigates the evolution of attitudes towards private energy consumption reduction over time. Although beliefs are becoming more positive across Europe, personal responsibility to address climate change seems to play an especially pivotal role in Eastern countries. Policy implications are discussed in light of these results.

Suggested Citation

  • Giacomo Campagnola & Bruno S. Sergi & Emiliano Sironi, 2025. "Attitudes Towards Climate Change and Energy Demand: Evidence from the European Social Survey," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 17(10), pages 1-18, May.
    • Handle: RePEc:gam:jsusta:v:17:y:2025:i:10:p:4661-:d:1659255
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://www.mdpi.com/2071-1050/17/10/4661/pdf
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://www.mdpi.com/2071-1050/17/10/4661/
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:gam:jsusta:v:17:y:2025:i:10:p:4661-:d:1659255. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    We have no bibliographic references for this item. You can help adding them by using this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: MDPI Indexing Manager (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://www.mdpi.com .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.