Environmentally friendly urban development: changes in decision-makers’ attitudes, problem perceptions and policy preferences over three decades

This paper investigates changes in decision-makers’ attitudes toward environmentally sustainable urban development in selected Norwegian urban settlements between 1991 and 2020. Changes in general environmental attitudes, problem perceptions and policy preferences concerning urban development are analyzed based on a survey conducted three decades apart in the same case areas among similar samples of decision-makers. The results show a general picture of some mainstreaming of environmental concern, environmentally friendly attitudes and positive attitudes toward measures supporting nature and climate friendly urban development. At the same time, there has been an increased divide between the political left and the political right in their attitudes toward environmental issues in general, as well as toward environmentally sustainable urban development. The results point to a widening gap between environmental attitudes and problem perceptions on the one hand, and the physical reality of escalating crises in the natural world.