LAST UPDATE | 29 Nov 2022
NEARLY FOUR IN five young people would be in favour of imposing fines on businesses that emitted more than a certain amount of greenhouse gases.
Additionally, 57% would strongly support a ban on non-essential domestic flights, though only 29% would back a limit on annual flights per person.
In addition, over half (57%) would favour the implementing car-free zones in towns and city-centres.
New research from the Economic Social and Research Institute (ESRI) studied young people’s attitudes to climate, their personal actions, and their opinions on hypothetical future climate policies.
Of a representative sample of 500 people aged between 16 and 24 years old, more than 90% viewed protecting the environment as very important and most believed they could do more in their everyday lives to help combat climate change.
Ylva Andersson, lead author of the report, said the results “show that young people in Ireland are concerned about climate change and highly motivated to act”.
But they also showed that youth “will need resources and leadership to act on these motivations, given the complexity of the issues and young people’s limited understanding of how they can best help reduce emissions”.
Young people were generally willing to make personal shifts like flying less or eating less meat while also holding the government responsible for enacting widespread changes.
However, they struggled to identify which individual changes would have the greatest impact on carbon emissions.
Other research would indicate that gap in knowledge is not unique to young people – another ESRI study earlier this year found people tend to underestimate the benefits of high-impact actions, such as eating less meat, and overestimate the benefits of low-impact actions like recycling.
Despite the need for more information on identifying how impactful an action can be, many young people studied by this latest research still indicated that they planned to avoid high-emission actions such as long-haul flights or eating meat.
Participants in the study were presented with 10 hypothetical future climate policies and asked how strongly or not they would support them.
The idea of fining businesses that exceeded an emissions limit received the most backing with 78% strongly in favour, followed by 71% for lower taxes on carbon-neutral goods.
Making renewable energy mandatory, even if it was more expensive, was strongly supported by 65% of participants. Similarly, 60% would back a ban on harmful subsidies even if it made products more expensive.
Creating car-free zones in towns or cities and banning non-essential domestic flights both received strong support from 57% of the participants.
A higher tax on energy-inefficient homes to fund grants for retrofitting and higher taxes on meat to fund green agriculture garnered strong support from 47% and 43% respectively.
Other measures were less popular; just 33% would strongly back higher fuel taxes to fund public transport, with only 29% strongly in favour of limiting annual flights per person.
Director of the EPA’s Office of Evidence and Assessment Dr Eimear Cotter said that the “environmental challenges facing Ireland can only be addressed if all citizens and stakeholders are engaged and empowered”.
She said the EPA was “encouraged” by the finding that “over 90% of young people in Ireland feel that protecting their environment is very important”.
“The EPA places a high value and sense of urgency on engaging with this audience to foster a greater understanding, a genuine sense of ownership and hope for the future.”
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