New insights from a climate change survey suggest a percentage of Irish people support “reducing the size of the national cattle herd to reduce greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions from agriculture”.
The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) has published two new insight reports from its Climate Change in the Irish Mind study which, according to the agency, shows that “people in Ireland support climate change policies”.
The study looked at “Irish people’s beliefs, attitudes, policy preferences and behaviours regarding climate change”.
According to the EPA the results of the research shows that: “A large majority of people (92%) support increasing forest areas to offset GHG emissions from agriculture, while fewer (64%) support reducing the size of the national cattle herd to reduce GHG emissions from agriculture”.
As part of the study a representative survey of 4,000 residents of the Republic of Ireland, aged eighteen and older was conducted from May 24 to July 29, 2021.
The EPA’s two new insight reports Climate Change in the Irish Mind – Support for Climate Policies and Climate Change in the Irish Mind – Climate Risk Perceptions provide a detailed analysis of the some of the findings from the study and survey.
Survey results
According to the agency a large majority (79%) of Irish people who took part in the survey – which used gender, age, work status and region quotas to ensure “sample representativeness” – said that climate change should be either a “very high” or “high” priority for government.
More than four in ten people in Ireland think people are being harmed “right now” by climate change.
Key overall findings suggest that many people think “they will be harmed by climate change but think others will be harmed more”.
In addition the survey results highlight that “most people support spending carbon tax revenues on programmes to reduce carbon emissions and to prepare for climate change impacts”.
There is also support for banning peat, coal and oil for home heating purposes according to the research.
But the results of the EPA study also demonstrate that there is “national opposition” to specific climate policy proposals – including reducing the size of the national herd.
Dr. Eimear Cotter, director of the EPA’s office of evidence and assessment, said the study indicates that the majority of people in Ireland support climate policies.
“People who oppose climate policies are not, however, climate deniers and opposition does not appear to be reflective of underlying concerns or suspicions around climate change.
“Rather, it appears to be specific to localised concerns and issues which must be addressed to enact major climate change policies,” Dr. Cotter said.
However she also believes that the results of the EPA study shows there is “disconnection” from the impacts of climate change.
“People believe that it will harm people in the future, far away, animals and plants, other people, and lastly themselves personally.
“This shows how important it is to convey the immediacy of the threat of climate change to people, that each of us is already being impacted by it and will be increasingly impacted into the future unless action is taken now,” she added.