Earth Day 2022: Perils of Perception

Washington, DC, April 22, 2022 — A new global Ipsos survey finds that people around the world are not very likely to make environmentally-friendly changes that would have the most impact on cutting carbon emissions. On average across 31 countries, less than half of adults say they are likely to make changes such as eating fewer dairy products (41%), eating less meat (44%), or changing their household heating system to a low carbon system (44%), despite these being some of the most effective ways in reducing CO2 emissions.

Instead, the ways consumers are most likely to try to cut their emissions include: avoiding products that have a lot of packaging (a global average of 58% report being likely to do so), avoiding buying new products (54%), saving water at home (52%), and saving energy at home (52%).

The survey was conducted February 18 – March 4, 2022, on Ipsos’s Global Advisor online survey platform among 23,577 adults.

On average globally, half of those surveyed (49%) mention they are likely to walk, cycle or use public transportation rather than drive a car or motorcycle. According to a study published in Environmental Research in 2020, living car-free is the number one way to reduce carbon emissions, followed by switching to BEVs (battery electric vehicles) and taking one less long return flight. The survey finds that 46% on average globally say they are likely to not fly in the next year or to replace some flights with train or bus journeys to reduce their environmental impact.

Among citizens of all countries surveyed, Americans are among those least likely to modify their behaviors to limit their contribution to climate change. However, there is a striking difference in the United States depending on its citizens’ party affiliation: Democrats show about the same likelihood to engage in most climate-conscious behaviors as the world average whereas Republicans are significantly less inclined to do so. The gap is widest when it comes to changes to food and transportation habits.

Few can correctly identify actions that would have the most impact on reducing greenhouse gas emissions. Of the list given, people are most likely to say recycling is the best way to reduce emissions (49% on average globally, 50% in the U.S.). In reality, according to the study mentioned above, this is considered the 60th most impactful action. Many also cited buying products with less packaging (28% and 21%, respectively) which only ranks at #38 in terms of actual impact, and buying fewer items or more durable items (22% and 19%), which ranks at #46.

Only two of the five consumer actions most widely mentioned by the public are among the top 10 that experts say are most impactful:

• Switching to purchasing renewable electricity (30% globally, 27% in the U.S.) – ranking at #4 in terms of actual impact

• Shifting to public transportation (22% globally, and 12% in the U.S.) – #5

Living car-free which experts rank at #1 in terms of actual impact was only selected by 15% on average globally and by 12% in the U.S.

Despite being the most impactful action people can take to reduce their emissions – and shifting to public transportation is another important one – people around the world are split on walking, cycling, or using public transportation more instead of driving. While more than six in 10 in China (72%), India (65%), and Peru (65%) report being likely to do so to reduce their carbon footprint, only one in three in the U.S. (33%), Canada (34%) and Sweden (34%) say so.