ESRA 2025 Preliminary Program
All time references are in CEST
Current methodological challenges and applications in environmental and climate research |
| Session Organisers |
Professor Henning Best (University of Kaiserslautern-Landau)
Dr Christiane Bozoyan (LMU Munich)
Mrs Manuela Schmidt (University of Kaiserslautern-Landau)
Dr Claudia Schmiedeberg (LMU Munich)
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| Time | Tuesday 15 July, 13:45 - 15:00 |
| Room |
Ruppert A - 0.21 |
Climate change and the depletion of Earth’s natural resources are among the largest challenges humanity currently faces. Addressing them requires ambitious policies promoting technological innovation and influencing human behavior and interactions within socio-economic systems. However, there is a great need of large-scale behavioral data such as panel data and natural as well as survey experiments that enable causal analyses (Jenny & Betsch, 2022).
To advance research on the human dimension of climate change, we need a thorough understanding of public perceptions of climate policy and environmental behaviors, and how these relate to the individual and to structural constraints related to socio-economic positions. Methodological challenges include the measurement of environmental behavior and households’ carbon footprint, often skewed by self-reporting biases, social desirability, and lack of knowledge. Questions on public opinion and policy agreement are particularly susceptible to response bias due to climate skepticism and opposition to policies. At the same time, climate skepticism as well as protest behavior towards environmental policies may be hard to measure due to privacy concerns. Survey experiments are suited to measure evaluations of complex policies and vague or uncertain payoff structures.
Linking survey data with new data sources offers new perspectives for environmental research. For example, the addition of geospatial information or sensor data allows for the consideration of context effects, while administrative data can help to close data gaps and validate measurements. These approaches still pose methodological challenges in managing and analyzing linked data and questions of data protection, sensitivity, and privacy.
This session will showcase approaches to measuring environmental attitudes and behaviors and innovative designs using smartphones, sensor or other new data sources to enhance environmental survey data. We especially welcome studies that further develop methodological approaches and explore (interdisciplinary) substantive applications of survey methods in environmental research.
Keywords: environmental research, climate change, sustainability, data linkage, survey experiments
Papers
Greening the Nursery: Exploring the (Un)fertile Grounds of Environmentalism in Fertility Intentions
Professor Katya Ivanova (University of Tilburg)
Professor Tobias Rüttenauer (University College London) - Presenting Author
The question of whether individuals consider climate change in their reproductive decisions has emerged as an important area of inquiry. Research in this field generally follows two paths: examining the impact of extreme weather events on fertility planning and exploring the relationship between climate change concerns and (often concurrently stated) fertility intentions. This study advances on existing research by analysing individual-level panel data from the UK Household Longitudinal Study (UKHLS), which tracks approximately 50,000 individuals from 2009 to 2020. We measure environmentalism using a composite index of pro-environmental behaviour from the first wave of the survey. First, we test the correlation between environmentalism and fertility intentions. Next, we analyse how fertility behaviours over time differ between individuals with high and low environmental concerns. All analyses are conducted separately for men and women, and for parents and non-parents as observed at the study's outset. Our findings indicate that environmentalism correlates with lower fertility intentions, a relationship that is reflected in observed fertility behaviours. The fertility gap is particularly pronounced for women between ages 25 and 35. Moreover, the patterns suggests a tendency toward fertility postponement rather than an overall reduction in fertility, as the gap narrows again by age 40.
Climate Change Attitudes, Actions, and Conspiracies: A Perspective from Croatia
Dr Marina Maglić (Ivo Pilar Institute of Social Sciences) - Presenting Author
Dr Tomislav Pavlović (Ivo Pilar Institute of Social Sciences)
Ms Marija Neralić (Ivo Pilar Institute of Social Sciences)
Climate change is one of the most important global challenges of our time. While many people express positive attitudes toward environmental protection and climate change mitigation, the relationship between attitudes and actions is not always straightforward. Notably, efforts to prevent climate change negative consequences vary, even across regions similarly affected by environmental disasters. This study examines climate- and science-related attitudes and environmental behaviours of Croatian citizens, utilising data from two waves of the European Social Survey (ESS, waves 10 and 11), Google Trends search data, and data from national reports on waste management. Specifically, the analysis, conducted at the Croatian county level, explores how attitudes towards climate change and scientists relate to actual behaviours, such as online interest in climate-related topics and waste recycling rates. Key findings reveal significant regional variability in attitudes and behaviours. Counties with higher trust in scientists demonstrated higher recycling rates, while searches of climate change topics on Google were more frequent in counties where citizens were less likely to believe that scientists manipulate data to deceive the public. These findings confirm the relationship between endorsement of conspiracies and environmental behaviours but also imply the relevance of media in providing the right information.
Public Perceptions and Policy Challenges in Energy-Efficient Housing: Insights from the British Social Attitudes Survey (2021)
Mr Lewis Payne (European Social Survey HQ (City St George's, University of London)) - Presenting Author
Given the substantial energy consumption of residential households and their resulting carbon footprint, the housing sector is pivotal in addressing climate change and reducing carbon emissions. In particular, regulatory measures around the energy efficiency of newly built homes and the retrofitting of existing homes are key to the reduction of carbon emissions in domestic housing. As such, this study utilises data from the British Social Attitudes Survey (2021) to examine public perceptions of energy-efficiency in new housing, as well as behavioural intentions regarding energy efficiency improvements to existing homes.
Key variables of interest include willingness to pay for energy-efficient homes, support for national retrofitting regulations, and preferences for incentives that promote more energy efficient homes, which are assessed in relation to key socio-demographic variables with a particular attention to housing tenure type. This includes, for example, an accounting for the differences in views between existing homeowners and prospective homeowners (renters who would prefer to own their own home) in accepting extra up-front costs for housing which is more energy efficient. This research will more widely highlight the policy challenges and areas of opportunity for reducing emissions in housing based on the findings from this analysis.
To provide a more nuanced account of the findings, the study addresses the limitations of using self-reported behavioural intentions from survey data alone given the potential influence of social desirability bias. Such limitations could limit real-world application of these results for policymakers, who have strong political considerations when enacting climate related policy. The possibilities for integrating survey data on climate attitudes and behaviours with extraneous datasets and geospatial information will therefore be highlighted to provide a roadmap for future research, allowing for a more rigorous accounting of climate related behaviours and views in national populations.
What do urban residents think about climate change and the policies to mitigate it? Results from the ESS PAUL Panel Survey
Dr Diana Zavala-Rojas (European Social Survey-Universitat Pompeu Fabra)
Mr Agustin Blanco Bosco (European Social Survey-Universitat Pompeu Fabra, Spain) - Presenting Author
Considering the growing concern about climate change and the impact it will have on the lives of citizens, it is more necessary than ever to study their attitudes towards the environment and policies to fight it, especially in more polluted places such as big cities. The Pilot Application in Urban Landscapes (PAUL) project works toward the European Green Deal by collecting data measuring greenhouse gas emissions from densely populated urban areas across Europe. In this project, ESS ERIC introduced the social dimension into pollution measurement by conducting a three-wave panel survey in Paris and Munich (2023-2025). The survey explored citizens’ attitudes towards public policies to mitigate climate change, urban air quality, energy use and transport, recycling among other topics. The presentation will cover the design of the survey, preliminary results, and the methodological challenges of linking survey data with environmental data.
