Key Scottish Environment Statistics 2013

Agreement or Disagreement with Statements about Climate Change and the Environment: 2008

Respondents to the Scottish Environmental Attitudes and Behaviours Survey 2008¹ were asked to indicate the extent to which they agreed or disagreed with a series of statements about climate change and the environment.⁴ These are presented above.

Respondents were asked if they agreed with the statement, "It is not worth Scotland trying to combat climate change, because other countries will just cancel out what we do". Overall, 22% agreed with this statement and 65% disagreed. Also, two thirds (66%) disagreed with the statement "The effects of climate change are too far into the future to really worry me" (22% agreed).

However, a sizeable proportion of people struggle to make the link between climate change and their own individual behaviour, with over a third (35%) agreeing with the statement, "I don't believe my behaviour and everyday lifestyle contribute to climate change" (48% disagreed and 16% gave a neutral response). In addition, more people agreed (45%) than disagreed (32%) that, "tackling climate change shouldn't come at the expense of the Scottish economy", while 23% expressed no opinion or did not know.

Thinking about the environment more generally, when asked if they agreed that "it's not worth me doing things to help the environment if others don't do the same", 22% agreed and 68% disagreed. Attitudes were more evenly split when the environment was set against other day to day concerns. Over a third of respondents (37%) agreed that the "environment is a low priority for me compared with a lot of other things in my life", while almost half (46%) disagreed with this.

Source: Scottish Government / Metadata