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Public Support For Climate Action Remains High Across Ireland.

• New EPA Climate Opinion Maps show that, similar to previous findings in 2022, there remains a high level of consistency across Ireland in terms of climate change attitudes, policy preferences, and behaviours.
• People across Ireland continue to be in almost full agreement that climate change is happening, and large proportions of the population are worried about it.
• On most topics, there remains no discernible difference between urban and rural areas, and there is majority support for all surveyed policies nationally.
• An emerging divergence was noted between Dublin and other counties regarding support for taxing fossil fuel-powered cars, and a slight fall in support for banning fossil fuels for home heating in the northwest.
• People in counties with a history of environmental risks such as flooding, water shortages or wildfire, show an increased awareness of the potential impacts of these risks resulting from climate change.

Check out the EPA Climate Opinion Maps to see where your County stands on Climate Action.

The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) has today released updated 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 output from Wave 2 of the Climate Change in the Irish Mind study, undertaken in 2023 by the EPA and the Yale University Program on Climate Change Communication in support of the National Dialogue on Climate Action.

Speaking about the new climate change opinion maps, Dr Eimear Cotter, (Director of the Office of Evidence & Assessment) said: “The interactive climate opinion maps make the EPA’s Climate Change in the Irish Mind data accessible to a wide audience across Ireland. These maps show nationwide acceptance of the scientific consensus on climate change, and strong support for most climate action policies, with minimal variation based on where people live, and that most climate attitudes were resilient in the face of cost-of-living increases. However, we also see that public understanding of the causes of climate change is limited and varies between counties. In some counties, less than half of the population understands that climate change is human caused, compared to about six in ten in other areas.”

While the overall picture of support for climate action is high and largely consistent across the country, there are slight regional variations in the level of support for some policies such as the banning of peat, coal, and oil for home heating. Support is highest in urban areas, and weakest in the North-West and border regions. A similar pattern is evident for policies to increase taxes on cars that use petrol and diesel.

People tend to be worried about known region-specific risks from climate change. For instance, a higher percentage of people are worried about water shortages in Dublin and the Mid-East region than the rest of the country. However, water pollution remains a widespread worry for eight in ten people across all counties.

Speaking about the maps, Dr Tara Higgins, (Programme Manager, EPA Evidence Programme) said: “It is encouraging to see that most people across all parts of Ireland believe we have a collective responsibility to act on climate change. It will be important to understand and address people’s concerns about some climate action policies – such as moving away from fossil fuelled transport and home heating. These latest climate opinion maps are a valuable resource for climate policy decision-makers, researchers, the media, non-governmental organizations, and students. We encourage people to use these maps to explore opinions on climate change and worries about climate risks in their own county and region.”