Climate Change in the Irish Mind - Intention Action Dynamic

The ‘Climate Change in the Irish Mind’ project (CCIM) is a nationally representative baseline study of the Irish people’s beliefs, attitudes, policy preferences and behaviours regarding climate change, undertaken by the EPA and the Yale Program on Climate Change Communication.

The insight report ‘Intention Action Dynamic’ comes from CCIM Wave 1, with surveying taking place in 2021. The questionnaire contained a series of topics and themes: Worry about climate change impacts; Beliefs; Risk Perceptions; Policy Support; Norms; Personal Experience of Climate Change; Media Sources; Consumer behaviours such as buying from or punishing companies based on their environmental actions; and Political behaviours such as donating money or time to environmental campaigns, or petitioning politicians.

Key findings from the consumer and political behaviours topic included:

·??????? 65% of adults have carried out at least one of the consumer actions [NH1]?[DO2]?‘occasionally’ or ‘often’ in the past 12 months. This ‘regular’ [NH3]?[DO4]?consumer action is reported as most frequent among the young, female, and Dublin based cohort.

·??????? Consumer action is lower among those aged 50 years plus. This demographic was found to more likely to be acutely concerned about multiple local environmental hazards but less likely to take consumer action.

·??????? In the next 12 months, 46% of all Irish adults intend to more frequently support companies who take steps to reduce climate change and to avoid products from those who oppose such steps. This highlights a potential for large consumer base supportive of climate action.

·??????? Past consumer behaviour is strongly related to future political intentions. Over 9 in 10 of those who ‘regularly’ carried out at least one of the consumer actions to reduce climate change also indicate a likelihood to adopt further political actions.

·??????? This willingness to be politically active is more prominent among younger age groups.

A full copy of Insight Report No. 4 Intention Action Dynamic can be found on the Climate change in the Irish Mind study Homepage

The main report from Wave 2 of the Climate Change in the Irish mind study was published in February 2024, using surveys collected in 2023. Future insight reports will explore additional research questions using both Wave 1 and Wave 2 of CCIM.