Support for renewables drops in Europe, suggests survey
BRUSSELS, Belgium, January 17, 2007 (Refocus Weekly) Europeans are increasing reluctant to pay a premium for renewable energy, according to a survey conducted for the European Commission.
The Special Eurobarometer on Energy Issues interviewed 12,509 people from the EU-25 last April, and the results were released late last year. The answers were compared with similar surveys conducted in 2002 and 2005.
When asked if they would be prepared to pay more for energy produced from renewable sources than for energy produced from other sources, 59% said they would not pay any more, while 24% would pay a premium of up to 5%, 8% would pay a premium of 6% to 10%, 2% would pay 11% to 25% more, 1% would pay a premium of more than 25% and 7% did not know. Opposition was highest in Bulgaria at 80% and lowest in Turkey at 41%, while support was highest in Lithuania at 51% and lowest in Bulgaria at 10%.
The 59% reluctance level compares with 54% in 2002 and 2005, while the 34% of respondents willing to pay more compares with 40% in 2005 and 38% in 2002.
The EU represents 25 countries and 450 million consumers of energy, with demand rising 1% to 2% per year and 80% based on fossil fuels. “We are using more and more energy and energy prices are perhaps more volatile and unpredictable than ever before,” the report warns.
“The energy challenges are apparent. Increasing demand and, as its corollary, growing consumption, pose various challenges: ensuring sufficient and secure energy supplies, combating increasing dependency on energy imports, making adequate investments in new technologies and tackling environmental effects, especially the greenhouse effect,” it continues. “Developing a European energy policy is a long term challenge (and) in order to achieve the targets set in the area of energy, general public opinion and consumer behaviour play a crucial role.”
Responses “seem to confirm that the price increase ceiling is 5%” but there are significant differences at country level on the issue, the report notes. The gap among the former EU-15 member states and the ten new member states (“with the latter group being clearly more reluctant to pay higher prices for green energy”) is fairly stable compared with the previous survey. In both country groups, there is a clear increase in the number of respondents who are not willing to pay more for energy produced from renewable sources.
“The existence of a market for green energy among consumers appears to be more evident in northern Europe, with countries such as Denmark (52%, down 4 points), Luxembourg (51%, down 9 points), the United Kingdom (48%, up 3 points) and Finland (46%, down 6 points) being more willing to take action even if this involves an extra financial effort by them in order to help the environment by consuming energy from renewable sources,” it explains. “Among EU member states, citizens in Portugal (78% saying no, up 8 points), Latvia (78%, +8 points), Lithuania (75%, +2 points) and Slovakia (74%, -2 points) are the most reluctant to make energy consumption efforts if that demands financial sacrifices.”
Countries where citizens are less prepared to pay more for renewables have a GDP that is far lower than the European average, as well as a higher unemployment rate, which demographers explain is the reason for the resistance to higher costs. “The position of Denmark, Luxembourg and the United Kingdom, on the upper-right quadrant of the chart, with high GDP and low unemployment rates, exemplify their motivation as well as the existence of objective conditions allowing citizens to afford such additional costs.”
“Education indeed seems essential in order for citizens to recognize and face the new energy related challenges,” it explains. “There is a difference of 25 points between respondents who continued their education for a longer time and those who had left school by the age of 15 when it comes to agreeing with the idea of paying more for renewable energy (48% compared to 23%).”
Apart from education, men aged 15 to 39 as well as managers “seem to be more open-minded with regard to the use of green energy when cost implications are involved” and the report concludes that “it is very likely that there is a link between the standard of living and higher willingness to pay more for renewable energy.” Compared with the last survey, self-employed people appear to be the only group that is slightly more prepared to pay a higher price for energy produced from renewables, while other white collar workers are much less willing to pay more.
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