ENVIRONMENT: A Top Priority for Europeans

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Stefania Bianchi

BRUSSELS, Mar 27 2003 (IPS) - Environmental awareness among citizens of the 15-member European Union is growing, says a new survey.

The so-called Eurobarometer Survey concludes that the Greeks are the most concerned about their environment, followed by Italians, Portuguese and French. In the Netherlands, Sweden and Finland, people are the least worried.

The survey reveals that without exception, women are more worried than men about natural disasters, nuclear power and chemical products.

At the same time, the more educated appear more sensitive to the problem of "the elimination of the tropical rain forests".

The survey focused on certain key questions, including what citizens of the 15-member European Union (EU) believe are the main causes of pollution.

Some 16,000 persons approached last autumn were also asked how confident they are that things could be put right and what in their view is the most appropriate level for taking decisions on environment.

Presenting the results of the survey Thursday, European Environment Commissioner Margot Wallstroem said it was the first such study since 1999.

"Europeans clearly see the environment as a top priority and want more action at European level. Europe plays the leading role in environmental protection but we can not rest on our laurels," Wallstroem said. "The survey shows that more needs to be done."

The poll reveals that EU citizens consider themselves under-informed about environmental issues. Only four out of ten of those questioned claimed they were well or very well-informed.

Europeans were asked how well "informed" they felt they were. The results reveal that "natural disasters", "air pollution", "climate change", "urban problems" and "destruction of the ozone layer" are problems about which Europeans most often feel "very well" or "fairly well informed" (more than 50 percent).

This first category clearly includes either relatively old environmental problems, which have therefore become familiar (air pollution for example), or very topical issues and hence with an extremely high profile in the media (climate change, destruction of the ozone layer).

A second group, for which the levels of information vary from 42 percent to 49 percent, consists of often more complex problems or ones less systematically dealt with by the media (extinction of species, destruction of forests).

The issues about which Europeans feel least informed (less than 40 percent) include either issues that have become less topical (acid rain) or problems of an industrial nature (chemical products, GMOs, industrial waste).

Professor Daniel Boy, head of research at the Fondation nationale des sciences politiques de Paris, who analysed the results, believes that the feeling of being under-informed can be explained by the way most Europeans gain information.

Television is the main source of information for approximately 70 percent of Europeans. "This indicates that they tend to wait for information to ‘fall into their lap’, without personally taking steps to seek it out, as they could do, for example, over the Internet," says Boy.

In a good sign for the EU, a significant number of Europeans place the responsibility of the environment with the EU institutions, putting them ahead of their own national governments.

A third of people questioned said that Europe is the best-placed level of power to develop environmental policies.

This positive result is recognition of work already achieved by the European Commission, which is behind more than 80 percent of environmental laws already in force within the EU.

When asked what could be done to help save the environment, Europeans appear to be divided. While half said that they felt that individual actions could help reverse current environmental trends, the rest said that these would make no difference.

But this is not the end of the pessimistic sentiment in Europe – almost half of those questioned said that they were far from hopeful for the environmental future of Europe.

However, the same numbers of people believe that stricter regulations combined with tougher enforcement should be adopted to deal with the problem. Others said that better enforcement of existing legislation would be the key.