EPCC

European Perceptions of Climate Change

Call 2013Societal transformation

EPCC gathered information on how people feel about climate change, whether they support climate policies and what energy sources are most popular across four European countries (France, Germany, Norway, the UK).

Across France, Germany, Norway and the UK there is strong support for the Paris COP21 Climate Agreement,for renewable energy sources and for preparing the country for the impacts of climate change
Most people in France, Germany, Norway and the UKthink that we are already feeling the impacts of climate change now
Respondents in Norway were generally most concerned about climate changeand expressed the strongest support for policies that aim to reduce national greenhouse gas emissions

About

In collaboration with international advisors, the research team designed a survey that was carried out in June 2016 simultaneously in the four countries through face-to-face and telephone interviews, with just over 4 000 respondents. The answers given showed that most people in these countries are very concerned about climate change and do believe that humans contribute to the changing climate.

Results of EPCC provide important insights into how climate change and related issues are perceived by people living in four large European nations. These insights help to identify which responses to climate change are already popular amongst the public and provide suggestions for effective communication strategies – such as to focus on the strong support for international agreements. Our project partner Climate Outreach published important recommendations for public engagement and communication strategies in a separate (freely available) report.

PhD Nick Pidgeon

LPI of the project

I am Professor Nick Pidgeon (MBE, PhD), lead investigator of the EPPC project. As researcher I am interested in explaining how people form their opinions and understandings of climate change and related policies. EPCC provided the unique opportunity to examine perceptions of climate change within and across countries. For example, we could look at whether support for climate change actions are motivated by moral considerations (or
practical considerations) and whether these motivations are different across different cultural contexts.

Project consortium

University of Bergen
Cardiff University
Institut Symlog
University of Stuttgart
Rokkan Centre for Social Studies
Climate Outreach

Show all partners

EPCC was a collaboration between five academic teams in four participating nations: Cardiff University, UK; Institut Symlog, France; NORCE (formerly Rokkan Centre for Social Studies) and University of Bergen, Norway, and University of Stuttgart, Germany and Climate Outreach, a UK-based think tank which specialises in climate change communication. The consortium was led by Nick Pidgeon at Cardiff University).

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News & Events

Parent programme

Call 2013

Joint Call for Transnational Collaborative Research Projects

This JPI Climate Joint Call for Transnational Collaborative Research Projects provided support for top-quality research projects on topics that are of high societal relevance in Europe and globally, recognising that such challenges require joint efforts through multinational approaches. JPI Climate is seeking proposals from consortia consisting of partners from the participating European countries as well as others. Consortia brought together different scientific disciplines to address the issues within the scope of the described call topics. The projects displayed clear links to decision-makers and users of climate knowledge as well as potential change agents in society.

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