A Climate for Change

(^26) Public Perceptions/ Knowledge about Climate Change Human Development Report - Croatia 2008
2.2.3. Levels of concern about climate
change
Q. 6:“Which of these statements comes closest to your
view on whether climate change is a problem?”
Q. 7: “How much effect, if any, do you think climate
change will have on you personally?”
Figure 2-6: Responses to Survey Q. 6
Figure 2-7: Responses to Survey Q. 7
Climate change is not a serious problem
Climate change is a problem
Climate change is a very serious problem
Climate change is not a problem
Don’t know, didn’t answer
72 %
24 %
1 %1 %
2 %
View on Climate Change
A dramatically large proportion of citizens consider
climate change to be a “very serious problem”. This is
similar to the results from the EU survey, wherein 54%
of respondents in Croatia named global warming as
“the most serious problem currently facing the world
as a whole” (the EU average was 62%).^7 Women and
respondents from the Adriatic region perceive climate
change as a very serious problem more often than
men and respondents from other regions of Croatia.
A likely explanation is that the Adriatic Sea is a key
natural resource linked to economic activities such as
tourism. Climate changes may become most evident
in the Adriatic due to sea-level rise, loss of biodiversity,
and greater temperature changes (See Chapter 3). As-
suming that Croatians perceive climate change as an
environmental issue rather than a socio-economic
one, the regional variation is not surprising.
Percentage of respondents
Age
21 or younger 22 - 34 35 - 65 Older than 65
0%
10%
20%
30%
40%
50%
60%
70%
80%
90%
100%
2%
10%
34%
41%
13%
3%
6%
35%
42%
15%
2%
6%
28%
43%
22%
3%
7%
31%
28%
30%
A great deal Quite a lot
Not very much No effect at all
Don’t know, not sure
Perceived extent of personal effects of
climate change
Q. 8: If the answer to the previous question was “a
great deal” or “quite a lot,” how do you think that
climate change will affect you?
Despite their high degree of concern about climate
change, less than two-thirds of Croatians believe it will
drastically affect them personally. This is a considerably
smaller value than might be expected, since 96% of
the respondents agreed that climate change was a se-
rious problem. There is no dramatic difference among
age groups as to whether climate change will have an
effect on their lives, but rather how much that impact
will be. The older population is far more concerned
than the younger. This might be explained by the in-
creased health concerns of older Croatians. To a certain
extent this is no surprise. Up to now, physical impacts in
Croatia from climate variability (aside from some heat
waves) have not been identified as being due to cli-
mate change in the media or among the general pub-
lic. While droughts, forest fires and heat waves have had
significant socio-economic impacts on Croatia (see, for
example, Chapter 8 on agriculture and climate change),
in the minds of the public, no link has been made.