We have recently carried out an interesting project. It was a public opinion survey on the views and attitudes of the Polish people concerning climate change. The project’s final event was a press conference held on 29 April. With this survey we have responded to a number of suggestions addressed to the Embassy Climate and Energy Team by various organisations who believed that such a project would help them in their work on climate policy and promotion of low carbon economy. Our partner in the project was The Public Opinion Research Centre (CBOS), one of the oldest and the biggest public opinion research centres in Poland.
Which parts of the report have I found the most interesting?
· Over 80% of respondents believe that climate change is a serious problem, and more than 90% declare that they are involved in activities aiming at preventing climate change.
· 51% of respondents support the construction of nuclear power stations, and 38.4% are against it.
· 59% support the implementation of carbon capture and storage technologies (CCS) in Poland, and 16% oppose them. At the same time, every fourth respondent does not know what CCS is. 
I have also learnt that the public figures most often mentioned as those who could really persuade the Poles to take action to protect the climate, are Prime Minister Donald Tusk and President Lech Kaczyński. Among organisations and companies, the respondents most frequently named Greenpeece and Zieloni (the Green), who stood out as the leaders of the list.
I must admit that I was surprised by the lack of faith among Poles (only 9% of respondents) in the role business could play in protecting the climate. This role is rather attributed to central government (67.5%) and local government (32.9%). Whereas to me it seems that enterprises have a great potential to play a significant role here. This is what happened in the United Kingdom, where for many years business has been involved in public debate on fighting climate change. Such projects are implemented, for instance, by CBI.
Both the CBOS report and a record of the discussion of experts that took place during the press conference, will soon be available. I would like to recommend this material especially to the organisations interested in carrying out social projects related to climate change.
Posted at 14:21 18 May 2009 by Agnieszka Tomaszewska | Comments[0]
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