A Climate for Change

(^24) Public Perceptions/ Knowledge about Climate Change Human Development Report - Croatia 2008
2.1.1. Levels of concern about the
environment
Q. 1: “How important is protecting the environment to
you personally?”
As Figure 2-1 suggests, Croatians have environmentally
friendly attitudes, with few (>2%) regarding the protec-
tion of the environment as “unimportant”. When com-
pared to the EU27 countries in terms of level of environ-
mental concern, Croatia ranked tenth.^6 Neither gender,
age nor region represent a discernible difference in the
responses, which is not surprising given the high level
of regard for the environment. However, education lev-
el does act as a good indicator for environmental con-
cern, with over four-fifths of respondents with a uni-
versity degree stating that environmental protection
is very important to them personally. As the education
level decreases, so does concern for the environment.
Q. 2: “From where do you get information about
environmental issues?”
The media plays an important role in educating, raising
awareness, and mobilising the public to take action re-
garding climate change. The importance of the media’s
role (especially television) should be stressed, because
the survey’s results show that Croatian citizens primar-
ily obtain information about climate change from tele-
vision, newspapers and magazines. Institutions wishing
to communicate with the public about climate change
issues should take this into consideration.
Figure 2-1: Responses to Survey Q. 1 in Croatia and the
EU average
Figure 2-2: Responses to Survey Q. 2
Figure 2-3: Responses to Survey Q. 3
2.2.2. Levels of understanding of climate
change
Q. 3: “How much, if anything, would you say you know
about climate change?”
Very important Fairly important
0%
10%
20%
30%
40%
50%
60%
70%
80%
72 %
64 %
26 %
32 %
Importance of the environment to Croatians
EU average
24 %
34 %
3 %
12 %
2 %
12 %
13 %
Some other source
Television
Newspapers Friends / Family
Internet
School / University
Magazines
Sources of information about environmental issues
Self-reported knowledge about climate change
A fair amount
A lot
Nothing, but I’ve heard about it A little
Hardly anything
1 %
19 %
55 %
21 %
4 %