Almost half of the respondents see the problem of climate change as a warning to future generations. A third of the respondents think that this problem needs to be addressed now, and one out of every seven respondents believes that global warming does not pose a threat to anyone.
In April 2016, a survey was conducted by Public Option Foundation and the question asked was about the biggest current threats that worry the Russian population. The survey covered fifteen hundred respondents from 104 settlements in 53 regions. According to the survey, the biggest threats for Russian people were international terrorism and nuclear war (35%). The other answers included: the threat of contamination of water, air and products, waste (22 %), natural disasters (19 %), deforestation and mass epidemics (18 %). Only 12% of the respondents said that climate change was a worrying problem for them, however, it could be observed that some of the responses in the survey were related to climate change issues (deforestation, waste production etc.). When the same question was asked in 2015, 15% of respondents were concerned with climate change problems, probably because in 2015 there was lots of media attention devoted to the Paris agreement discussion and people were more aware of the problem.
Another interesting survey related to climate change was conducted by the initiative of a working group of the presidential administration of the Russian Federation in June 2013. The survey’s goal was to test awareness of the population as regards to climate problems.
The results of the survey revealed the following: 54% – the overwhelming majority of respondents knew about climate change, 36% of the respondents heard something about climate change and global warming taking place on the planet.
Among the respondents who believe that the planet is experiencing global warming, 33% believe that the reason for is human activity, and 42% believe that human activity and natural processes are equally important.
Almost half of the respondents see the problem of climate change as a warning to future generations.
A third of the respondents thinks that this problem needs to be addressed now, and one out of every seven respondents believes that global warming does not pose a threat to anyone.
About 40% of respondents believe that humanity already understands the importance of the problem of climate change, and 17% of respondents believe that people will never comprehend the gravity of this issue.
More than 40% of the respondents believe that climate change is a serious problem, however it should not be prioritized but rather treated equally with other important problems.
The majority of respondents (more than 70%) believe that the problem of climate change must be discussed at the international level. And, according to 45% of the respondents, Russia should play a leading role in this and make unilateral commitments to reduce greenhouse gas emissions. Slightly less respondents (36.7%) did not agree with this strategy. More than half of the respondents (53%) would support the introduction of economic incentives to reduce greenhouse gas emissions in Russia.
At the same time, every third respondent found it difficult to answer this question.
The survey also addressed the possibility of respondents giving up some benefits for the sake of climate protection. 41.4% of respondents were ready to take such a step, 40.6% were not ready to change their habits to reduce climate change impacts.
Among those who are ready to take some actions: 42% said they could change their transportation habits, for example, stop using a car, use public transportation, use the car less often”, start using more environmentally friendly gasoline. About 9% of respondents said they could refuse to use plastic and polyethylene packaging.
Also, respondents said they were ready to abandon the use of certain types of household chemicals, aerosol cans, incandescent lamps, batteries. At the same time, about 10% of respondents said that nothing would force them to give up on certain benefits and habits for the sake climate change mitigation.
Learn More
http://kremlin.ru/events/administration/19203
http://climaterussia.ru/politika-i-finansy/poteplenie-k-izmeneniyu-klimata