- 57% believe that the Russian invasion of Ukraine and its consequences should accelerate the green transition.
- 74% say that, if we do not drastically reduce our consumption of energy and goods in the coming years, we will be heading for a global catastrophe.
- 63% are in favour of indexing energy prices to the level of consumption per household.
- 61% want highly polluting goods and services, such as sport utility vehicles (SUVs) and air travel, to be more expensive to account for their levels of pollution.
These are some of the results from the latest yearly climate survey, conducted in August 2022 and published today by the European Investment Bank (EIB). The EIB is the lending arm of the European Union and the world’s largest multilateral lender for climate action projects.
After a challenging year in which Russia’s invasion of Ukraine sparked an ongoing energy crisis and accelerated inflation all over Europe, ongoing discussions on the nitrogen crisis and a summer marked by record heatwaves and droughts, Dutch people have become even more acutely aware of the impact of climate change and the need for urgent action.
Climate change awareness and urgency
While COVID-19 was considered the biggest challenge facing Dutch people last year, concerns about the financial crisis now predominate. 50% cite it as their top concern, compared with 45% across the rest of the European Union.
Meanwhile, nearly six in ten Dutch people (59%, the same percentage as in 2021) say they are feeling the impact of climate change in their daily lives (20 percentage points below Germany, where the proportion is 79%, and 21 percentage points below the European average of 80%). Moreover, 74% think that, if we do not drastically reduce our consumption of energy and goods in the coming years, we will be heading for a global catastrophe. Meanwhile, 79% feel that the government is reacting too slowly, and only 29% believe the Netherlands will succeed in substantially reducing its carbon emissions by 2030.
War in Ukraine and green transition
A majority of Dutch people (57%) believe that the war in Ukraine and its consequences for the price of oil and gas should accelerate the green transition (9 percentage points less than the European average of 66%).