- People’s beliefs, attitudes, policy preferences and behaviours on climate change are consistent across Ireland with no discernible difference between urban or rural dwellers.
- New interactive climate change opinion maps of Ireland allow the public to examine and view national, regional, and county level data about Irish people’s climate change beliefs, attitudes, policy preferences and behaviours.
- The maps show that across Ireland people are in almost full agreement that climate change is happening, and large proportions of the population are worried about it.
- Almost nine in ten adults in all regions believe Ireland has a responsibility to act on climate change. In addition, almost eight in ten people in all counties believe acting on climate change will improve our quality of life.
- Those who live in counties that are more impacted by environmental hazards such as severe storms and water shortages express slightly higher levels of concerns about the impacts of climate change.
While the evidence is largely consistent across the country, there are minor regional variations in the level of concern about climate risks with, for example, slightly more people worried about water shortages in Dublin and the Mid-East region.
In addition, somewhat more people are worried about severe storms in the West, Mid-West, and South-West regions. These spatial variations align with known environmental risks in these areas.
The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) has today released new interactive maps of Ireland that show national, regional, and county level data about people’s climate change beliefs, attitudes, policy preferences and behaviours.
This is the third key output of the Climate Change in the Irish Mind study, undertaken by the EPA and the Yale University Program on Climate Change Communication in support of the National Dialogue on Climate Action.
The maps allow visual exploration of data from the Climate Change in the Irish Mind survey. View HERE.
Speaking about the climate change opinion maps, Dr Eimear Cotter, (Director of the Office of Evidence & Assessment) stated: “The new interactive climate opinion maps bring the data from the EPA’s Climate Change in the Irish Mind study to life. At a national level the maps show a consistent picture across the country of high levels of understanding about climate change and support for climate action with little variation depending on where people live. We see a picture of attitudes, behaviours, and policy preferences to climate change across counties and regions that are closely aligned with high levels of awareness and worry about climate change in each area. For example, almost nine in ten adults in all regions believe Ireland has a responsibility to act on climate change and almost eight in ten people in all counties believe acting on climate change will improve our quality of life.”
Speaking about the data Dr Conor Quinlan, (EPA Senior Manager, Climate Services) said: “These maps allow the public to examine at the national, regional and county level, in an easy to use format, information on climate change and desire for climate action and we encourage people to go online to see what their county thinks. The findings of this, and the other Climate Change in the Irish Mind outputs, will be used to inform and support national communications on climate change. It will also be used by climate policy and decision makers, the research community, media, and the non-governmental sector. With future iterations of the Climate change in the Irish Mind survey, the maps will subsequently be updated”.
Further information: Emily Williamson, EPA Media Relations Office Tel: No. 053-9170770 (24 hours) or email media@epa.ie
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