MOST PEPOEL READY FOR ’GREEN SACRIFICES’

[Anonymous]

Most ready for ‘green sacrifices’
Most
people are ready to make personal sacrifices to address climate change,
according to a BBC poll of 22,000 people in 21 countries.Four out of
five people indicated they were prepared to change their lifestyle –
even in the US and China, the world’s two biggest emitters of carbon
dioxide.

Opinion was split over tax rises on oil and coal – 44%
against, 50% in favour.Support would rise if the cash was used to boost
efficiency and find new energy sources, the poll suggested.BBC
environment reporter Matt McGrath says the poll suggests that in many
countries people are more willing than their governments to contemplate
serious changes to their lifestyles to combat global warming.Overall,
83% of respondents throughout the world agreed that individuals would
definitely or probably have to make lifestyle changes to reduce the
amount of climate-changing gases they produce.In almost all countries
in Europe, and in the US, most people said they believed the cost of
fuels that contribute most to climate change would have to increase.The
only exceptions were Italy and Russia, where significant numbers of
people believed that increases in the price of energy would not be
needed.The pollsters suggested that high energy costs in both countries
could have put people off the idea of increasing prices even further.

Attitudes
to rising energy costs in Asia and Africa were more varied.Large
majorities in China said higher energy costs were necessary – although
the BBC’s Dan Griffiths, in Beijing, pointed out that people
interviewed over the telephone were unlikely to contradict official
policy.In South Korea and India, the majorities in favour of higher
prices were much smaller.And in Nigeria, 52% of the respondents said
they did not think higher fuel costs would be necessary to combat
global warming.

Green China?
Opinions were divided on proposals to increase taxes on fossil fuels.Worldwide, 50% are in favour and 44% are opposed.

The
Chinese are the most enthusiastic when it comes to energy taxes – 85%
of those polled saying they were in favour, 24 percentage points more
than in the next most-supportive countries.In the rest of the world,
narrow majorities – and sometimes minorities – favoured higher energy
taxes.However, when people opposed to energy taxes were asked whether
their opinion would change if the revenue from the taxes were used to
increase energy efficiency or develop cleaner fuel, large majorities in
every country were in favour of higher taxes.And when those opposed to
higher taxes were asked whether they would change their minds if other
taxes were reduced in order to keep their total tax burden the same,
the survey again discovered large majorities in every country in
favoured of higher green taxes.”This poll clearly shows that people are
much more ready to endure their share of the burden than most
politicians grant,” said Doug Miller, director of Globescan, the
polling company that conducted the survey on behalf of the
BBC.Globescan interviewed 22,182 people in the UK, Australia, Brazil,
Canada, Chile, China, Egypt, France, Germany, India, Indonesia, Italy,
Kenya, Mexico, Nigeria, the Philippines, Russia, South Korea, Spain,
Turkey, and the United States.Interviews were conducted face-to-face or
by telephone between 29 May 29 and 26 July 2007. 

[Author]

November 5, 2007 at 10:27 AM