International Social Survey Programme: Environment IV - ISSP 2020

The International Social Survey Programme (ISSP) is a continuous programme of cross-national collaboration running annual surveys on topics important for the social sciences. The programme started in 1984 with four founding members - Australia, Germany, Great Britain, and the United States – and has now grown to almost 50 member countries from all over the world. As the surveys are designed for replication, they can be used for both, cross-national and cross-time comparisons. Each ISSP module focuses on a specific topic, which is repeated in regular time intervals. Please, consult the documentation for details on how the national ISSP surveys are fielded. The present study focuses on questions about the environment, climate change and environmental protection.<br>Most important issue and next most important issue for the country; agreement with different statements (private enterprise is the best way to solve economic problems, government´s responsibility to reduce income differences between people with high incomes and those with low incomes, own country should limit the import of foreign products in order to protect its national economy, own country should limit immigration in order to protect the national way of life, international organizations are taking away too much power from the government); country’s highest and next highest priority; amount of trust in people; trust in institutions (university research centres, the news media, business and industry, parliament); extent of personal concern about environmental issues; most important environmental problem for the country as a whole (air pollution, chemicals and pesticides, water shortage, water pollution, nuclear waste, domestic waste disposal, climate change, genetically modified foods, using up our natural resources); attitude towards climate change (the world’s climate has not been changing, the world’s climate has been changing mostly due to natural processes, the world’s climate has been changing about equally due to natural processes and human activity, the world’s climate has been changing mostly due to human activity); rating of the impacts of climate change for the world as a whole and for the country; agreement with different statements (modern science will solve our environmental problems with little change to our way of life, we worry too much about the future of the environment and not enough about prices and jobs today, almost everything we do in modern life harms the environment, people worry too much about human progress harming the environment, in order to protect the environment the country needs economic growth, economic growth always harms the environment); willingness to pay much higher prices and much higher taxes as well as to accept cuts in standard of living in order to protect the environment; willingness to accept a reduction in the size of the country’s protected nature areas in order to open them up for economic development; attitude towards the environment and environmental protection (It is just too difficult for someone like me to do much about the environment, I do what is right for the environment, even when it costs more money or takes more time, there are more important things to do in life than protect the environment, there is no point in doing what I can for the environment unless others do the same, many of the claims about environmental threats are exaggerated, I find it hard to know whether the way I live is helpful or harmful to the environment, environmental problems have a direct effect on my everyday life); assessment of the hazardousness of various factors potentially affecting the environment: air pollution caused by cars and by industry, from pesticides and chemicals used in farming, from water pollution, from a rise in the world´s temperature caused by climate change (greenhouse effect), from the modification of genes of certain crops, and nuclear power stations; best way of getting national business and industry as well as people and their families to protect the environment (heavy fines for businesses/ for people that damage the environment, use the tax system to reward businesses that/ people who protect the environment, more information and education for businesses/ people about the advantages of protecting the environment); extent of pleasure being outside in nature; frequency of any leisure activities outside in nature in the last twelve months; number of trips by plane in the last twelve months; number of hours in a typical week spend in a car or another motor vehicle (not public transport); number of days in a typical week the respondent eats beef, lamb, or products that contain them; number of rooms in the apartment or house; frequency of special efforts to sort glass or tins or plastic or newspapers for recycling; frequency of avoiding buying certain products for environmental reasons; member of a group to preserve environment; personal environmental political activities in the last five years (signed a petition about an environmental issue, given money to an environmental group, taken part in a protest or demonstration about an environmental issue); extent to which the neighbourhood was affected by air pollution, water pollution, and extreme weather events over the last twelve months.

Demography: Sex; year of birth; age; years of fulltime-schooling; country specific highest degree of education; ISCED 2011: highest completed degree of education (merged variable); ISCED 2011 simplified: highest completed degree of education; currently, formerly, or never in paid work; hours worked weekly; employment relationship; supervise other employees; number of other employees supervised; type of organization: for-profit vs. non-profit and public vs. private; occupation (ISCO/ ILO 2008); main employment status; living in steady partnership; trade union membership; country specific religious affiliation or denomination; groups of religious denominations (derived); attendance of religious services; Top-Bottom self-placement; if respondent voted in last general election; country specific party voted for in last general election; party the respondent voted for in last general election: left-right scale (derived); country specific ethnic group; size of household; number of adults in household; number of children above school entry age in household; number of children below school age in household; country specific personal income; country specific household income; legal partnership status; father´s country of birth; mother´s country of birth; place of living: urban – rural; country specific region.

Information about spouse/ partner: currently, formerly, or never in paid work; hours worked weekly; employment relationship; supervise other employees; occupation (ISCO/ ILO 2008); main employment status.

Additionally encoded: ID-number of respondent; Case substitution flag; date of interview (year, month, day); language of the interview; administrative mode of data collection; flag variable indicating partially completed interviews; weight; Country ISO 3166 Code; Country/ Sample ISO 3166 Code; Country/ Sample Prefix ISO 3166 Code - alphanumeric.