According to an analysis of data from the Socio-Economic Panel (SOEP) conducted by DIW Berlin, reported on by the Funke-Mediengruppe, concern over climate change has risen sharply among Germans since 2009. However, this level of anxiety remains below the level of fears regarding environmental damage observed in the 1980s.
DIW has been questioning participants about the extent of their worries regarding climate change in the future since 2009. For the current analysis, the institute used the existing data as a reference year and calculated standard deviations to measure shifts in public concern. According to the DIW, a standard deviation of 0.1 point indicates minor change, while 0.5 points represents a major shift.
The analysis shows a general upward trend in concern since 2013. In 2022, the deviation in climate worries was more than 0.4 points above the reference value, while 2023 was slightly below this mark. A similar upward trajectory is observed in general environmental anxieties, a question that has been featured in the SOEP since 1984.
Experts noted that while younger generations are generally more worried about climate change impacts than older ones, overall awareness is increasing across all age groups. Franziska Holz, co-author of the study and deputy head of the Energy, Transport, and Environment department, stated that “the baseline level of concern has risen significantly in recent years compared to the start of the data series. Furthermore, concern grows with age”. She pointed out that today’s 70-year-olds are, on average, more worried about the climate than they were at age 60, and more worried than 70-year-olds were ten years ago.
While climate worries have seen a rise in recent years, historical environmental anxieties played a significantly larger role in the past. In 1987, the year following the Chernobyl reactor accident, environmental worries registered a 0.65 deviation, and this concern was even higher two years later. Holz explained that “issues such as air pollution and acid rain played a much bigger role back then”. The Chernobyl incident is also marked in the data by a subsequent and sharp increase in public concern.
The data analyzed spans through to 2023. The SOEP itself is a long-term social science study that surveys individuals across 20,000 households in Germany each year on a variety of topics.
