Environmental Consciousness in Germany 2018

The Study on Environmental Consciousness in Germany has been conducting research on the development of environmental consciousness and environmental behaviour of the population in Germany every two years since 1996. The aim is to understand the patterns of thought and action that exist in society and to incorporate them into citizen-oriented policies.

The survey of the first wave consisted of time comparison questions on environmental quality, health, noise, the role of environmental policy and voluntary commitment; mobility and traffic change; agriculture and rural regions; meat alternatives as well as the awareness of environmental labels.

The second survey wave consisted of comparative questions on the importance of environmental and climate protection, the actions of relevant actors and synergies/conflicts of environmental policy with other policy fields; environmental awareness (cognitive, affective and conative environmental attitudes); electricity and heat transition, energy transition; air travel; environmental knowledge.
Items to identify social milieus and socio-demographic information were collected in both waves.

Wave 1

Topics: 1. Mobility and transport transition in urban and rural areas: background variables: Car driving licence ownership; Car-Sharing services in the community of residence.

Choice of means of transport, reasons, satisfaction: frequency of use of means of transport for everyday journeys (public transport, own car, car-sharing car, carpooling or car-sharing, motorbike, moped, moped, scooter, e-scooter, walking, bicycle without additional electric drive, electric bicycle, e-bike, pedelec, rental bicycle); reasons for choosing the car in everyday life (e.g. is comfortable, reliable, cheaper, etc.). e.g. is comfortable, reliable, cheaper, etc.; Satisfaction with the car: rating of the experience of using the car in everyday life overall; Reasons for choosing public transport in everyday life (e.g. are reliable, can relax while doing so, etc.); Satisfaction with public transport: Evaluation of the experience of using public transport in everyday life as a whole; reasons for choosing the bicycle for trips in everyday life; satisfaction with the bicycle: evaluation of the experience of using the bicycle in everyday life as a whole.

Attitudes towards social issues related to mobility: agreement with various statements on transport and mobility (you need your own car to manage everyday life with children and family, more urgently needs to be done for public transport, public transport needs to become much cheaper. I often feel unsafe in public transport, public transport buses and trains should run more frequently, my place of residence is difficult to reach by public transport, more cycle paths and cycle lanes are needed, cycle paths must above all become safer, more motorways and trunk roads are needed, car traffic should be significantly reduced in cities, car-sharing is a good alternative to owning a car, with the combination of car-sharing, public transport and a bicycle you are just as mobile as with your own car, more parking space for cars must be created in city centres, driving bans are needed for cars that emit a lot of pollutants, in order to reduce environmental and climate damage caused by traffic, more financial burdens should be placed on car traffic, more environmentally friendly means of transport should be promoted with public funds, more urgently needs to be done in cities to combat air pollution caused by car traffic, there should be more opportunities to combine cars, public transport, bicycles, (shared) taxis, etc. ); sensible measures to reduce environmental and climate pollution caused by car traffic (e.g. abolition of tax concessions for diesel fuels, increase of energy tax on fuels such as petrol and diesel, etc.); opinion to promote environmentally friendly means of transport (electric cars, public transport, bicycle transport).

Personal preferences with regard to the future development of transport (as little impact as possible on the environment and climate, being able to cover everyday journeys comfortably and cheaply, advancing economic development in Germany and the competitiveness of German companies).

Assessment of current transport policy: agreement with statements on transport policy in Germany (oriented primarily towards environmental and climate protection, the needs of citizens, the interests of the economy).

Actors of the mobility turnaround: Actors who can make an important contribution to greener transport in Germany (each and every individual, environmental associations, cities, municipalities, government (federal, state), car industry, automobile clubs e.g. ADAC, public transport companies, employers, retailers, shops, trade unions, media, courier and delivery services, none of these); three most important actors for greener transport in Germany.

Willingness to change: Retrospective behaviour with regard to environmentally friendly mobility (use of car-sharing, rental bike, carpooling, park & ride, bought monthly or annual ticket for public transport, used the train for a holiday trip, used a long-distance bus); future willingness to engage in the aforementioned behaviours.

Follow-up survey

Topics: Most important problems in the country; importance of problems social justice, economic development, crime, public security, wars, terrorism, environmental and climate protection, unemployment, immigration, migration, state of education and health system, and development of urban and rural areas.

Demography: sex; age; employment; activity if not employed (group); educational attainment; occupational status; household size; number of children under 18 in the household; net household income; location size.

Additionally coded: sequence number; serial number; weighting factor.

2. Time comparison and baseline questions on environmental policy (wave 1): assessment of environmental quality at the place of residence, in Germany and worldwide; health burden due to environmental problems: Strength of perceived health burden due to environmental pollution and environmental pollutants; strength of perceived annoyance in the last 12 months due to noise from various noise sources (rail traffic noise, road traffic noise, air traffic noise, industrial and commercial noise, noise from neighbours; Importance of environmental and climate protection with regard to other political task fields (securing prosperity, creating jobs, securing competitiveness, more social justice, mastering future tasks (such as e.g. globalisation)); commitment: Willingness to actively engage in nature conservation and environmental protection; monetary donations to nature conservation and environmental protection associations in the last 12 months.

3. Agriculture and rural regions: Familiarity with agriculture: self-assessment of being informed about agriculture in Germany; contact with farms.

Societal tasks of agriculture: three most important tasks of agriculture for society (providing the population with a variety of high-quality and healthy food, ensuring the welfare of farm animals, protecting the environment and nature, maintaining economic activities and employment in rural areas, promoting culture and tradition in the countryside, producing low-priced food, producing plants for energy production and/or as industrial raw materials, preserving landscapes, none of the above); fulfilment of the aforementioned societal tasks by agriculture.

Environmental and climate impacts of agriculture: problematic nature of various impacts of agriculture on the environment (e.g. pollution of water bodies and drinking water through overfertilisation or the application of liquid manure, environmental pollution through pesticides such as glyphosate, etc.).

Approval of various measures to reduce environmental pollution in agriculture (e.g. stricter controls and higher penalties for violations of environmental laws, higher environmental requirements or stricter approval procedures for plant protection products and fertilisers, higher taxes or duties on particularly environmentally harmful agricultural products, stricter regulations on animal welfare in livestock farming, etc. ); sensible measures to burden particularly environmentally damaging agricultural products with levies, taxes or tariffs (increase VAT from 7% to 19% on animal products, levy levies on pesticides, introduce levies on fertilisers to limit over-fertilisation of the soil, levy levies on imported feed for livestock farming, none of the above).

Personal preferences with regard to the future development of agriculture (agriculture should be oriented in the future in such a way that the environment and the climate are burdened as little as possible, it enables all people to provide themselves with a variety of high-quality and healthy food in everyday life, economic activities and employment are maintained in rural areas).

Assessment of current agricultural policy: agreement with various statements on agricultural policy in Germany (agricultural policy in Germany is mainly oriented towards environmental and climate protection, the needs of consumers, the interests of farmers, the interests of industry, e.g.. Food corporations, chemical industry and seed producers).

Actors in the agricultural transition: Actors who can make an important contribution to greener agriculture in Germany (each and every individual, environmental associations and nature conservation organisations, cities, municipalities, European Union, government (federal, state), industry associations such as the German Farmers´ Association, food trade, chemical industry and seed manufacturers, farmers, food monitoring authorities, animal welfare organisations, media, none of these); three most important actors for greener agriculture in Germany.

Organic consumption, regional and seasonal food: share of organic products, regional products and seasonal products in food purchases in the last month; frequency of meat consumption.

Willingness to change: Retrospective behaviour with regard to nutrition and food purchases (e.g. when buying food, avoid packaging and bring your own bags or other containers, instead of yoghurt and milk made from cow´s milk, buy products based on soya beans, oats, rice or coconut milk, consciously buy only products without palm oil, etc.); future willingness to adopt the aforementioned behaviour.

4. Meat alternatives: Awareness of in-vitro meat; expected consequences of in-vitro meat (e.g. meat consumption without a guilty conscience, factory farming will become superfluous, in-vitro meat will not taste like real meat, etc.); general attitude towards different meat alternatives (in-vitro meat, food derived from insects, meat substitutes made from plants).

5. Awareness, influence and credibility of eco-labels: Awareness of selected ecolabels or seals; credibility of these ecolabels and seals; assessment of the influence of these ecolabels and seals on own purchasing decisions.

6. Respondent characteristics: items to identify social milieus: views on various aspects of life such as society, work and private life.

Demography: sex; age; highest level of education; gainful employment; completion of occupational activities or for home office training; living situation; household size; number of children under 18 in the household; respondent himself or at least one of the parents moved to Germany from abroad (migration background); net household income (grouped); occupational status of current or former occupation; city size; distance of various facilities from the home (workplace, supermarket or discount store, family doctor, pharmacy, primary school, public transport stop); distance of the place of residence to the nearest large city; estimated development of the population of the place of residence; residential status of main residence; federal state; region.

Additionally coded: sequence number; serial number; transport mode use bicycle aggregated; social milieus and youth segments; weighting factor.

Wave 2

Topics: 1. Time comparison and basic questions on environmental policy (wave 2): naming of the two most important problems in the country (open, coded); importance of various task areas in environmental protection (e.g. switching from fossil fuels to renewable energies, taking up less natural land for new roads, residential and commercial areas, etc.); assessment of the commitment of various actors to environmental and climate protection (environmental associations, cities, municipalities, federal government, industry, citizens).

Synergies between environmental and climate protection and other policy areas: Contribution of more environmental and climate protection to other political task areas (preservation of prosperity, creation of jobs, quality of jobs, competitiveness of the economy, social justice, challenges of globalisation, health of people, combating causes of flight, securing peace, technical progress); priorities in case of conflict; importance and consideration of the requirements of environmental and climate protection in different policy areas (economic policy, labour market policy, social policy, foreign policy, transport policy, agricultural policy, energy policy, tax policy, urban development policy, urban and regional planning).

2. Indicators of environmental awareness: opinion on various statements on environmental effects and environmental cognition (e.g. it worries me when I think about the environmental conditions in which future generations will probably have to live, climate change also threatens our livelihoods here in Germany, etc.).

Environmental behaviour: Intentional behaviour: Frequency of environmentally friendly behaviour when buying and using products and services (e.g. buying food from controlled organic cultivation, choosing products with an eco-label, etc.); personal commitment to ecological goals (donating money for environmental and climate protection, active commitment to environmental and climate protection, participation in demonstrations exerting political pressure for more environmental and climate protection, signatures in online campaigns, participation in initiatives that try out new environmentally and climate-friendly ways of acting, such as urban gardening or repair cafés. (e.g. urban gardening or repair cafés, minimising the impact on the environment and climate in everyday behaviour, e.g. when shopping or heating, standing up for values such as environmental protection and sustainability, voting for parties that advocate strict environmental and climate laws).

Impact-based behaviours: Number of cars in household; mileage of this/these car(s) per year.

3. Electricity and heat transition: Background variables: Housing status main residence.

Individual behaviour with regard to electricity: electricity consumption of one´s own household in comparison with other comparable households in Germany; purchase of green electricity; green electricity sign or seal of the electricity provider; agreement with statements on controlling electricity consumption (e.g. I regularly check the consumption of my appliances with an electricity meter to detect electricity guzzlers, I know exactly how much electricity my household consumes per year, etc.); level of heating energy demand of the main residence (rather high, average, rather low, very low).

Awareness and behaviour with regard to energy-efficient refurbishment: Owner status: Awareness of various state subsidies for energy-efficient refurbishment and modernisation (e.g. subsidy for energy advice for residential buildings, subsidy for the individual refurbishment roadmap for residential buildings, etc.); subsidies used; individual behaviour with regard to energy-efficient refurbishment (e.g. heating energy consumption in the last year). (e.g. informed themselves about heating energy consumption of their own home in the last year, had an energy consultation for their own home, implemented measures to save thermal energy through renovation, etc.); evaluation of the result of these measures according to school grades; future willingness to behave with regard to energy-efficient renovation; support for energy-efficient renovation (rent) (willingness to pay the legally permissible rent increase if the energy-efficient renovation brings more living comfort, only the landlords or owners should pay for the energy-efficient renovation, increase in cold rent is OK if this amount can be saved on heating costs after the renovation, owners use energy-efficient renovations specifically to increase rents).

4. Energy transition: Importance of central aspects of the energy transition (phasing out nuclear energy, phasing out the use of fossil fuels, expanding renewable energies, increasing energy efficiency through new technologies, reducing energy consumption in transport, reducing energy consumption in the economy, economical energy consumption by private households); importance of individual measures of the energy turnaround (dismantling of climate-damaging subsidies, government promotion of energy saving in residential buildings, increasing the price of CO2 emission rights, higher taxation of particularly climate-damaging products, promotion of electric vehicles, expansion of supra-regional electricity grids, more citizen participation in planning and approval processes related to the energy turnaround, creation of new jobs in regions affected by the coal phase-out, guaranteeing an affordable energy supply for all); personal preferences in the context of the energy transition (the energy transition should be implemented in such a way that greenhouse gas emissions in Germany decrease quickly and significantly, the costs are distributed in a socially just manner, and it has a positive impact on economic development and businesses in Germany); agreement with statements on energy policy in Germany (the energy transition contributes to a significant decrease in greenhouse gas emissions in Germany, the costs of the energy transition are distributed in a socially just manner, the energy transition has a positive impact on economic development and the situation of businesses in Germany).

Stakeholders in the energy transition: Actors who can make an important contribution to the success of the Energiewende in Germany (each and every individual, environmental associations, cities, municipalities, government (federal, state), trade unions, welfare and social associations, electricity companies, municipal utilities, industrial companies with high energy consumption, companies producing e.g. wind and solar energy plants, investors, media, none of the above); three most important actors for the success of the Energiewende in Germany.

Own contributions to the Energiewende: personal behaviour with regard to renewable energies (e.g. financial participation in a community plant that produces electricity from renewable energies on site, financial investment in renewable energies, etc.) and future willingness to behave.

Conflicts; agreement with statements on the energy transition (I think it makes no sense that so many buildings in Germany are being insulated, energy transition is progressing too slowly to effectively protect the climate, landscape and nature conservation are sufficiently taken into account in the energy transition, costs of the energy transition in Germany are distributed too unevenly, restructuring of individual industries such as coal mining is fine, I feel disturbed or inconvenienced by wind turbines in my neighbourhood, I worry that many people in our country do not take the energy transition seriously enough).

5. Air travel: frequency of private air travel in the last 12 months; awareness of compensation payments; have ever made compensation payments themselves.

6. Respondent characteristics: items to identify social milieus: views on various aspects of life such as society, work and private life; fair share of the standard of living in Germany.

7. Environmental knowledge: knowledge test on various topics (renewable energies, energy consumption in the household, greenhouse effect, local public transport, formation of fertile soil, proportion of sealed land, groundwater pollution, air pollution, sustainability, Paris Agreement).

Demography: sex; age; highest level of education; employment; living situation; household size; number of children under 18 in the household; respondent himself/herself or at least one of the parents moved to Germany from abroad (migration background); net household income (grouped); occupational status of current or former occupation; size of locality; housing status; living space at main residence; heated living space; federal state; region.

Additionally coded: sequence number; serial number; social milieus and youth segments; environmental awareness (environmental effect, environmental cognition, intentional environmental behaviour); total environmental awareness; CO2 impact behaviour tonnes; weighting factor.