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In the public eye, climate protection is a question of generations: Here the schoolchildren and students of the “Fridays-for-Future” generation, there the elderly, who downplay all environmental fears out of concern for the economy and prosperity.
Because the latter is seen by many as irresponsible in view of the epochal challenge of climate change, the comment columns in daily newspapers such as the “taz” are already calling for the elders to vote and instead let children go to the polls.
The result of the major climate survey of the European Investment Bank (EIB), however, raises doubts about the idea of the climate fight old against young.
Because the generation of over 65-year-olds is sometimes much more consistent here than that of the 15 to 29-year-olds.
Source: WORLD infographic
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36 percent of Germans think that the products and services with the highest greenhouse gas emissions should be banned.
But while, according to the survey, 47 percent of those questioned over 65 years of age could imagine such an emission ban, only 27 percent of those aged 15 to 29 could imagine it.
This trend continues in many individual questions.
Only 31 percent of the under-30s think that domestic flights should be banned, but significantly more, namely 46 percent of the over-65s, consider the ban on short-haul flights to be a good thing.
It remains unclear whether the young people are simply better informed on this question: At 0.3 percent, domestic flights hardly make a measurable contribution to German CO2 emissions.
Source: WORLD infographic
In general, the climate protection aspect does not seem to have the high priority among young people that the television pictures of demonstrating Fridays for Future children suggest.
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A total of 48 percent of the under-30s believe that one should reduce the consumption of oil, gas and coal because global resources are running out and because this reduces the import dependency of their own country.
Only 26 percent of young people believe that less fossil fuels should be used, primarily for climate protection reasons.
So it goes on: Priority on better recycling?
47 percent of young people (up to 29 years of age) are in favor, but 53 percent of older people over 65 years of age.
Production ban for particularly short-lived goods or those that cannot be repaired?
Only 37 percent of young people think it is good, but a whopping 61 percent of seniors.
Source: WORLD infographic
In terms of climate and environmental protection, the front line between the generations is apparently by no means as clear as young activists and Greta Thunberg supporters would like to believe.
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The boys up to the age of 29 do not want to be banned from racing on the autobahn either: only 12 percent would agree to a speed limit - at the age of 65 and over, it is 26 percent.
The elderly are also the ones who would ban cars with high pollutant emissions from the city centers (38 percent), while only 25 percent of the young want that.
It is noticeable that, according to the survey, Germans as a whole can hardly warm up to subsidizing electric cars: only 20 percent are in favor, the European average is twice as high at 40 percent.
Worrying for Germany, the land of inventors and engineers: only 28 percent of Germans believe that technology and digitization are among the best solutions to the climate protection problem.
There are particularly few technology believers in the 15 to 29-year-old generation: Only 22 percent of this age group would primarily rely on technology for climate protection.
This is slightly below the European average of all age groups of 28 percent and well below the value of the ecological model countries in Scandinavia: In Denmark and Finland over 36 percent, in Sweden even 40 percent of those surveyed believe that technological improvements are among the most promising methods of climate protection.
In the USA and China, too, the figure is around 35 percent.
Although in the previous, second round of the EIB survey in Germany, only a minority of 15 percent were willing to change their personal behavior so radically that it fits the Paris climate goals, 42 percent of Germans now declared that behavior changes regardless the most important thing in climate protection.
16 percent counted on the state to enforce the corresponding behavior with regulations.
14 percent give priority to public and private investments in climate-friendly projects.
Overall, 39 percent of respondents in Europe were in favor of behavioral changes.
EIB Vice-President Ambroise Fayolle sees the results as an “encouraging message” for all of Europe.
“People firmly believe that their personal behavior can contribute to overcoming the climate crisis,” he said.
The Portuguese (51 percent), the Slovaks (44 percent) and the Luxembourgers (43 percent) are even stronger on this line than the Germans.
The EIB is the bank of the European Union and, as the EU's financing instrument, is committed to the Union's political objectives.
For the survey by the European Investment Bank, a representative sample of the population in a total of 30 countries was taken between October 5th and November 2nd last year - a total of 30,000 people were interviewed.
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