Sign in. It’s quick, free and it’s up to you.
An account is an optional way to support the work we do. Find out more.
THE VAST MAJORITY of people in Ireland have made personal changes in their lives for environmental reasons in recent years – but only half feel that they are doing enough.
Slightly fewer people again think that enough is being done overall to tackle the climate crisis, a new poll has found.
As part of a detailed climate poll by The Good Information Project/Ireland Thinks, we asked people around Ireland for their personal perspectives – whether they’ve made changes for the environment, who’s most responsible for addressing the climate crisis, and how large a problem they understand it to be.
87% of people said they have recycled more in recent years for environmental reasons. 71% have cut down on single-use plastics and 43% have reduced their purchases of clothes, while one-third of people eat less meat.
Some less common changes are using public transport more (19%), retrofitting their home (18%), cycling more (15%), using renewable energy to power their home (13%) and using electric vehicles more (8%).
Only 5% of people have made none of those changes.
Nearly half (45%) of 25 to 34-year-olds are eating less meat, the highest rate for any age group, and 94% of 55 to 64-year-olds are recycling more.
In Dublin, using public transport and cycling more rises to 27% and 19% respectively.
In comparison, in Connacht and Ulster, it was 13% and 12%.
Uptake of the measures was highest among People Before Profit voters, of whom 53% said they increased their use of public transport and 30% cycle more, and the Green Party at 44% and 32% respectively.
Eating less meat was also lowest in Connacht and Ulster at 29%, compared, for example, to Dublin’s 38%, but it had the highest rate of home retrofitting (21%) of any region.
Respondents that vote for Aontú had the highest rate of making none of those changes at 16%, followed by 8% of Fine Gael and Labour Party voters, 7% of Independent, 5% Sinn Féin and 1% of People Before Profit.
All Fianna Fáil, Green Party and Social Democrat voters said they have made at least one of those changes.
Is it enough?
Although most people have made changes, only 55% feel they are doing enough in their own life to tackle the climate crisis.
32% don’t feel they are doing enough, 9% said they didn’t know, and 4% believe it isn’t their responsibility.
Older age groups were more confident than younger ones that they were doing enough in their lives, with “yes” responses rising from 31% in the 18 to 24 category to 75% among 65 and overs.
Men were three times more likely than women to believe that it isn’t their responsibility to take action to tackle the crisis at 6% compared to 2%, but overall, that belief was low across most demographics except for 18 to 24-year-olds at 12%.
Who’s responsible for tackling the crisis?
When the poll asked who is the most responsible for ensuring the climate crisis is addressed properly, governments were the clear leader in the responses – 44% of people believe governments hold the most responsibility.
28% of people believe individuals are responsible for making sure the crisis is addressed, 27% pointed to corporations, and 1% didn’t know.
18 to 24 and 25 to 34-year-olds especially think that governments should be leading change, with 58% and 54% of the age groups respectively voting for governments, whereas older age groups gradually placed less emphasis on governments and more on personal responsibility.
Governments are only the most responsible according to 37% of people aged 65 and over, while 40% chose individuals and 22% said corporations.
People with a third-level degree were more inclined to say governments are most responsible for addressing the crisis (51%), compared to those with a post-Leaving Cert qualification (41%), Leaving Certificate (42%) and who finished education without a Leaving Certificate (32%).
Fine Gael voters were the only respondents on the political spectrum to place more responsibility on individuals than on governments – 34% said governments, 45% said corporations, and 20% said corporations.
On the other end of the scale, 74% of People Before Profit voters said governments are the most responsible for making sure the climate crisis is addressed, 8% said individuals, and 18% said corporations.
But irrespective of who is responsible for fixing it, nearly half of people agree that climate change is a big problem and that we’re not doing enough to tackle it.
The poll asked respondents about their views on the issue of climate change – whether they believe it is a small or large problem (or not a problem at all) and whether enough is being done to address it.
48% said that climate change is a big problem and we’re not doing enough to tackle it, while 11% believe that it is an enormous problem and it’s too late for us.
26% feel it is a significant problem and we’re doing as much as we can.
10% believe it is a small problem and we’re doing more than enough and 3% said it isn’t a problem, with another 2% saying they didn’t know.
Men were more likely than women to say that climate change isn’t a problem – 5% vs 1%.
Ireland Thinks polled a representative sample of 1,200 people on 16 October for their views on climate issues.
You can find more detailed breakdowns of Ireland’s views on climate policies, agriculture, and a lack of faith in the government to take action here on The Journal.
This work is co-funded by Journal Media and a grant programme from the European Parliament. Any opinions or conclusions expressed in this work are the author’s own. The European Parliament has no involvement in nor responsibility for the editorial content published by the project. For more information, see here.
To embed this post, copy the code below on your site
All of this is a complete waste of time unless China, India and Russia come on board. Our annual Co2 emissions btw are currently 0.000012%. Please tell me how we are going to make a difference.
@Mike Dunne: yep everyone else has to do their bit before us. one of the largest per capita co2 outputs in the world. we are certainly not blameless here.
@Mike Dunne: invented percentage figure you’re using there to downplay our contribution. Check out worldometer stats as some other poster recently pointed out.
@Mike Dunne: Everyone has to make their own contributions, countries large and small as well as individuals. Individuals and small countries can lead by example, they carry a lot of weight but sitting on your a$$ doing nothing and moaning about big countries won’t get us anywhere… in fact it’ll set us backwards. Typical nimbyism!!!! You want to sit back and watch other people do the work.
@Mike Dunne: Ireland #68 0.11% of global emissions https://www.worldometers.info/co2-emissions/co2-emissions-by-country/
This poll, added to the recent poll commented upon by the Irish Times tells us a lot about ourselves. The latter poll suggested that young people (yup, the ones who skip school on Fridays to preach about the environmental sins of their elders!) are prepared to do almost nothing that involves changing their own lifestyles – much less than their parents generation, who are.
This poll shows that most people seem to believe the government is most responsible for cleaning up the mess. This is just another way of people excusing themselves from changing their individual lifestyles because, “sure, isn’t it the government’s job to save the planet”. I have news for them. They are codding themselves. For example, the government isn’t creating all that digital information that must be stored in those energy-voracious data storage centres.
I recently asked some of my neighbour’s children if instead of skipping school on Fridays would they be prepared to make Fridays a data-free day when they would abstain from social texting and posting to social media. I was met by blank stares. It became obvious they have no intention of making any individual sacrifices which would inconvenience their own lifestyles.
No doubt the the ‘angry children’ will feature prominently at the upcoming Glasgow junket, sermonising at the rest of us sinners. I’ll take them with the proverbial pinch of salt!
@Peter O’Muiri: Don’t worry Peter. The government has their back on this one. Those young people have years of high taxes to look forward to.
@David Corrigan: We’ve been happy enough paying high taxes for yonks supporting the banking, insurance, greyhound industries etc, etc…. Maybe it’s high time we started thinking about getting our priorities in order. Survival of the planet, our kids and grandkids future surely are more important.
Theres too much talk of climate in this country. Even if we stopped all emissions it would make a microscopic difference. China is opening new coal burning plants every week.
It’s been pointed out to Prince Charlie that taking private jet trips around Euroland lecturing the less fortunate on how to live is just not on lol..
Whatever the people of Ireland think, say or do, we just don’t matter.
Even if all CO2 emissions stopped, it wouldn’t make a bit of difference. 0.11%
@Ciaran Maher: There are other small countries on this planet in case you didn’t notice and apart from making an impact on emissions, they can exert pressure on the bigger countries as consumers and even more importantly, moral pressure. The EU is made up of small countries but as a block it carries more weight…..maybe we should let France, Germany and Italy do all the work while we sit in front of our turf fires and take the oul smoky diesel car out and drive Into town for the vegetables and fruit from Africa and South America wrapped up in the nicest plastic wrapping!!!!! Apart from any climate emergency…. there’s a lot more we could be doing to support our local community and producers.
Get rid of Vat on solar power and insulation and on installation of these! Job done and uptake would be huge but it’s too simple
@Dave Phelan: Solar panels can be bought directly from China for about €1 per watt. Charge controllers can also be bought for small money.
@David Corrigan: And what sort of guarantee do you get with them. Also no genuine registered installer will touch that as they will be held accountable for any issues with you buy cheap materials.
@David Corrigan: not sure what this actually means because if most people try to get solar panels the costs will be in excess of €5000. Reduce the charges on that and you will see people putting them in
@Dave Phelan: My point was to source the raw materials directly. Start small and just have a system to heat the water for showers etc. I see some of the prices quoted by solar companies here and they are huge amounts. Not many people can afford it like you suggested.
@Roy Dowling: It’s like buying anything Roy. We checked reviews and ran some tests etc on sample panels. All you have to do is employee someone to install it only. They have to guarantee their own work i.e. wiring etc.
@David Corrigan: No registered solar PV installer will come along and fit panels a customer bought online from China. Especially when they see the price that was paid for it. if they were to install it they take the responsibility for the materials you bought should anything happen. So any decent tradesman would walk away and you’ll be left with a cowboy to fit it. Cheap materials and cowboy installer what could possibly go wrong.
@David Corrigan: cheap panels from china, the reason we re in this mess is cheap, high emissions producing manufactured stuff from china.
@Roy Dowling: I don’t think you understand Roy. That is the cost those registered installers are paying for the solar panels from China. They are charging a fortune for them.
@Anarch Eco: Do you know where to buy them in Ireland then? Like an Irish manufactured panel?
@David Corrigan: How do you know there costs? Or are just assuming because you found a site where you can buy them cheap that automatically where everyone gets them from? Bit of a generalisation don’t you think? Heres a thing you don’t understand. A tradesman No.1 hate is customers who supply supply the fittings etc. Reason being the majority of the time there cheap quality bought online with no guarantee and then something happens customer blames the tradesman.
@David Corrigan: sure maybe diy:
George Cove, a forgotten solar power pioneer, may have built a highly efficient photovoltaic panel 40 years before Bell Labs engineers invented silicon cells. If proven to work, his design could lead to less complex and more sustainable solar panels.
@Roy Dowling: You are jumping to a lot of conclusions in fairness Roy. I am an electronic engineering with over 25 years experience. Some of the products we design use solar panels and charging modules. Also, I have visited the factories in China that manufacture such components and I can assure you that even the high end panels are being purchased for very very small money.
I hope that clears things up for you?
@David Corrigan: So if went to a job to fit solar PV on a property and the customer brought you to a garage and said I’ve bought everything you need. you being an electronic engineer for 25 years you’d know it’s not as simple as buying them and putting on the roof there is an awful lot of planning to be done that customer didn’t do when they bought them. So would you fit what they bought?
@Roy Dowling: Let’s look at a similar example. Say your electric power shower breaks down today. You go into Woodies and you select a new high end power shower at a good price. You bring it home and store in your garage.
Then you call an electrician who you know and trust. He calls to your home to do the job. You go out to your garage to retrieve the power shower you purchased yourself and your electrician installs it.
Can you explain to me the difference between your example and mine please?
@David Corrigan: I wouldn’t fit an electric shower a customer bought. They wouldn’t have taken into account the rating of the shower and if the cable in the wall is big enough etc. And if your comparing a brand solar PV new install to replacing an existing shower. You are no electronic engineer as it’s like comparing chalk and cheese. Feel free to answer my above question. Would you with your 25 years experience fit a solar system a customer bought off the internet? Please answer and not deflect..
@Roy Dowling: You need to dial down our tone a bit Roy. Don’t talk down to me. Trying to look smart does not suit you.
If you know what you are doing, you would call the electrician and know the maximum rating of the shower before you purchased. You understand all of this, right?
Yes, I would install the system if it has the specifications, datasheets and wiring diagram. Why wouldn’t I? My company designs replacement systems for plant that’s not supported anymore. The companies who originally manufactured the plant might not be in business anymore. Should I stop doing that work because I didn’t originally own/design the system?
What are asking is should the home owner expect the electrician to guarantee the solar system. No, they should not. They should only guarantee their own work i.e. the wiring up of the system.
@Roy Dowling: @Roy Dowling: You need to dial down our tone a bit Roy. Don’t talk down to me. Trying to look smart does not suit you.
If you know what you are doing, you would call the electrician and know the maximum rating of the shower before you purchased. You understand all of this, right?
Yes, I would install the system if it has the specifications, datasheets and wiring diagram. Why wouldn’t I? My company designs replacement systems for plant that’s not supported anymore. The companies who originally manufactured the plant might not be in business anymore. Should I stop doing that work because I didn’t originally own/design the system?
What are asking is should the home owner expect the electrician to guarantee the solar system. No, they should not. They should only guarantee their own work i.e. the wiring up of the system.
@David Corrigan: Not talking down to you Dave but you are comparing replacing an electric shower to fitting a brand new solar PV system. When 2 completely different things. An electronic engineer with 25 years experience would know there that wouldn’t you agree?.
When it comes to the electric shower of course I know what I’m doing I’ve been doing it 15 years so wouldn’t need to call anyone. You say your company designs and fits solar PV so you’ll know you don’t just buy one off the internet and put it on the roof. If that was the case your company wouldn’t exist.
@Roy Dowling: You are reading this all wrong. I was using the shower as an example. You are stating that you couldn’t ask an electrician to install a solar system with parts THEY DIDN’T source. My answer to that is yes, if they know what they are doing and have all the technical information, then they can install the system.
I didn’t say my company designs and fits solar PV. I said my company designs systems AND we have used solar technology in our work in the past.
Talk about twisting words around. Why are you doing that?
@David Corrigan: David you don’t just buy a solar PV system without taking a lot of thing into consideration before picking a system. Therefore what the customer buys off the internet won’t suit there needs. It’s not a case of one system does all. You should know this.
@Roy Dowling: Ok Roy. I detect that you don’t understand what’s involved so we will have to leave it there.
Have a great day.
@David Corrigan: i fully understand what’s involved David. A solar PV system is designed to make the house as green and a efficient as possible and therefore reduce the owners monthly bills. Any system I’ve helped install was designed for each property. Just slapping on a internet bought system would be a waste and the client isn’t getting what they need or perhaps getting far greater than they need and don’t have a battery storage system to store the excess energy thus making the whole system inefficient and not green. But you know all that David do have a good day yourself.
Every time the government give grants for anything the price charged goes up to negate any savings. The government waste so much money. Why not have a scheme to fit them and make them tax deductible. Or even free to encourage uptake. It would also provide employment.
@Shane Brigdale: you are using too much common sense there Shane!
People need to be given clear alternatives so that they can choose the greener option.
If we are being asked not to choose fossil fuels then there needs to be an alternative that is attractive.
An example today is people are being asked to choose home heating by heat pumps instead of solid fuel,gas or oil but electricity prices are increasing too.
If the green choice is electricity then electricity needs to be subsidised to make it cheaper and guaranteed price in the long term.
I suggest readers check out Freeman Dyson and his views. A highly respected scientist who argues that the models are incorrect and cannot predict a system as chaotic as the climate. Also he believes the models exaggerate the temperature rises and also take no account of the Suns variable activity.he also notes that higher CO2 has increased agricultural yields and the earth is actually greener than it was 40 years ago. People need to read other sources re climate change as we are only hearing one side of the argument. Yes we are changing the climate but by how much and what are the benefits?
FG the party of the individual.
Just as in the case of the pandemic fallout, the correct hashtag is in fact
#we are so not in this together
have your say