Polls reveal citizen support for climate action and energy transition
- The latest: Climate not a priority in snap elections
- Europeans increasingly consider climate change the single most serious problem facing the world
- Climate still a priority, but no longer tops German voters’ list of concerns
- Energiewende acceptance remains high, but details are tricky
- Other recent surveys on climate and energy
1. The latest: Climate not a priority in snap elections
While the climate crisis was a top issue for many voters in the 2021 election, it played a much smaller role in the snap election in early 2025, following the break-up of the previous coalition government. A survey by public broadcaster ARD showed that the most important issues driving how Germans voted were domestic security (18% of respondents) and social security (18%), followed by migration (15%) and economic growth (15%). Environment and climate ranked fifth at 13 percent, down from 22 percent at the previous election in 2021. Still, most voters wanted more ambitious climate policy from the party they supported, showed a survey by Forschungsgruppe Wahlen ahead of the vote in February.
The new government under chancellor Friedrich Merz did not make climate action a priority. Its first 100 days in office were clouded by lingering energy transition uncertainty.
While climate no longer tops the voters’ list of concerns (see below), many Germans want the government to be more ambitious on reducing emissions. The PACE survey from May, when the new leadership had just taken office, showed that 39 percent of respondents wanted the incoming government to do more to curb global warming.
2. Europeans increasingly consider climate change the single most serious problem facing the world
Twice a year, the European Union surveys thousands of people across its member states for its Standard Eurobarometer. The 103th edition was carried out in spring 2025 among residents of the 27 member states. Included in the standard set of questions is “What do you think are the two most important issues facing the EU at the moment?” The environment and risks related to climate change continues to lose attention and is now in ninth place with 10 percent mentioning it (-5 pp since autumn 2024 and -16 since Winter 2021-2022).
In addition to the standard survey, the EU regularly commissions studies on key topics. In June 2025, the European Commission published the results from a survey on climate. A large majority of Europeans continued to view climate change as a serious global threat, with 85 percent of citizens identifying it as a major problem. The survey also included questions on information and media. Fifty-two percent of respondents said traditional media failed to provide clear information, and 49 percent reported difficulty identifying reliable content on social media. As most EU surveys, the climate survey included aggregated data from the whole of the EU, but also factsheets on each member state.
More than 80 percent of Europeans support the EU objective of becoming climate neutral by 2050. Four in ten citizens say they are personally exposed to environmental and climate related risks.
European Investment Bank’s (EIB) climate survey
In addition to the Eurobarometer, the European Investment Bank (EIB) – which refers to itself as the world’s biggest multilateral financial institution and one of the largest providers of climate finance – has annually commissioned its EIB climate survey since 2018. The 2024/2025 edition, was conducted in partnership with French polling company BVA. About 24,000 respondents aged 15 and older in 28 countries were surveyed in the EU countries and also in the US from 6 to 23 August 2024.
Published in November 2024, the survey put a focus on climate change adaptation. Ninety-four percent of EU respondents said it is important for their country to adapt to climate change, while about half said it needs to be prioritised. Eighty-six percent said that investing in adaptation can create jobs and boost local economies. Eighty-five percent agreed that spending on climate adaptation is required urgently to avoid even higher costs in the future.
3. Climate still a priority, but no longer tops German voters’ list of concerns
Politbarometer (Forschungsgruppe Wahlen)
Last published: regularly, about twice per month
Pollster: Forschungsgruppe Wahlen
Key phrasing for measuring citizens’ concern for climate action: “What do you think is the most important problem in Germany at the moment?”
Pollster Forschungsgruppe Wahlen has conducted its representative Politbarometer survey since 1977, and up to two times per month asks respondents to identify the most important problem Germany is currently facing. Environment/climate/energy transition stayed relatively level for more than a decade, until when in 2018/19 it showed a spike in voter concern that catapulted it to the top of the list. This change was driven by consecutive exceptionally warm summers with drought, the Fridays for Future climate protest movement and intense public debates about policies, such as the phase-out of coal. The coronavirus pandemic caused the perceived urgency of climate action to drop significantly for several months, as societies adapted to pandemic response measures. The fallout of Russia's war against Ukraine, including the European energy crisis, pushed worries about inflation and international security to the forefront. In 2024 and also in 2025, immigration and the worsening economic outlook topped the list of concerns.
Environmental Awareness study (UBA, BMU)
Last published: May 2025 (interviews in end-2024)
Pollster: Institut für ökologische Wirtschaftsforschung (IÖW)
Key phrasing for measuring citizens’ concern for climate action: “On this list are various problems facing our country today. Please indicate in each case how important you think the problem mentioned is.” -- Reply: “very important/rather important” (87% in 2024)
The last edition (Umweltbewusstseinsstudie 2024) was published in May 2025. For the representative survey, more than 2,500 German residents aged 18 and older were asked to fill out online questionnaires. As the title suggests, respondents were asked questions about a broad range of environmental topics, from climate action and the energy transition to agriculture and transport. It found that the importance of environmental and climate protection has declined in light of the many parallel crises the country is facing. However, the issue continued to be a high priority for most respondents. In 2020, 65 percent said the issue was “very important.” By 2024, this number was down to 54 percent.
Planetary Health Action Survey PACE (research institutes)
Last published: May 2025
Pollster: PACE group
Several research institutes regularly examine the knowledge, risk perception, trust, attitudes, and behaviour of German citizens regarding the climate crisis. The latest results showed that most of them want the party they plan to vote for in the next election to do more for the climate than it was perceived to be doing at the time of asking. Around 85 percent of respondents agreed that significant climate change is already happening and that it will markedly impact life on earth in the future.
The project also provides a data explorer for readers to have a closer look at developments spanning several years.
4. Energy transition acceptance remains high
The government-appointed expert commission tasked with monitoring the progress of Germany’s energy transition (Energiewende Monitoringbericht) has in recent years regularly warned of fading citizen acceptance of crucial energy transition infrastructure projects. The installation of new wind turbines or major power transmission lines increasingly has faced local resistance, which endangers the success of the entire transition, the experts found. At the same time – and this is no contradiction, they said – general acceptance of wind and solar power expansion or the need for new power lines remain high in Germany, mostly by “passive supporters.” The problem is said to be a “loud minority,” which campaigns against individual projects across the country.
The outcome of surveys on citizens’ support for the energy transition often depends on how the questions are phrased and what response choices are given. Below is a list of several major and recurring surveys, including the key phrasing:
Last published: November 2024
Pollster: YouGov for Renewable Energies Agency (AEE)
Key phrasing for measuring citizens’ support for Energiewende: “Increased use and expansion of renewable energy is…”
| 2012 | 2013 | 2014 | 2015 | 2016 | 2017 | 2018 | 2019 | 2020 | 2021 | 2022 | 2023 | 2024 | |
| Extremely/very important | 70% | 66% | 70% | 66% | 66% | 65% | 72% | 66% | 65% | 57% | 66% | 55% | 54% |
| Important | 24% | 27% | 22% | 27% | 27% | 30% | 21% | 23% | 21% | 26% | 19% | 26% | 26% |
| Less important/not important at all | 6% | 6% | 7% | 6% | 6% | 4% | 6% | 8% | 10% | 12% | 10% | 14% | 16% |
In November 2024, the AEE's representative annual survey was conducted by online pollster YouGov, which approached more than 1,000 people aged 16 and over. The AEE added up the categories “extremely important,” “very important” and “important” to arrive at the conclusion that with 80 percent, "it is remarkable that public support for renewables is still very high, defying economic and political crises."
"Social Sustainability Barometer of the Energy and Transport Transition" (Ariadne project 2021 - 2023)
Last published: July 2023
Pollster: Forsa
Key phrasing for measuring citizens’ support for Energiewende: " What do you personally think about the energy transition? Please mark the extent to which you disagree or agree with each of the following statements. – I support the energy transition in Germany.”
|
|
2023 |
|
Do not agree at all |
7.2 % |
|
Rather do not agree |
5.1 % |
|
Partly agree |
18.2 % |
|
Rather agree |
28 % |
|
Fully agree |
40.3 % |
|
Don’t know |
1.3 % |
Under the umbrella of the Ariadne project, a large group of research institutes with a focus on the energy transition published the results of this survey. Of the respondents, 86.5 percent (at least to some extent) support the energy transition. Over 6,500 adult respondents were surveyed by pollster Forsa between February and March 2023.
The survey builds on the comprehensive Social Sustainability Barometer, which the Institute for Advanced Sustainability Studies (IASS, today RIFS) had published in previous years. The catalogue of questions has been adapted for the new version.
Energy Transition Barometer (KfW)
Last published: September 2024
Pollster: infas Institut für angewandte Sozialwissenschaft GmbH
Key phrasing for measuring citizens’ support for Energiewende: [not published]
The 2024 survey found that 82 percent of households say the energy transition is "very important" or “important” (88% in 2023).
KfW – a government-owned development banking institution – has commissioned its Energy Transition Barometer since 2018. The survey focuses on the attitude of households to the energy transition and the extent to which technologies relevant to energy transition are used in the various households. For the 2024 edition, pollster infas interviewed about 6,000 residents in Germany aged 18 and older from end-2023 to April 2024.
5. Other recent surveys on climate and energy
German businesses, NGOs, research institutions or ministries regularly publish survey results on key climate action and energy transition issues. Most of these are one-off publications and not part of a longer series. Here are several recent examples:
The E.ON Foundation in August 2025 published a survey which found that young people in Germany are more optimistic about the energy transition than other age groups.
A survey by health insurer TK from September the same year found that the majority of workers in Germany feel that climate change has had an adverse effect on their workplace. Another poll by the University of Applied Sciences Hamburg and insurer mkk from July 2025 showed that around half of university students in Germany feel that climate change affects their mental health negatively. And one in two Germans said they feel weighed down psychologically by climate change and its effects in a survey by the country’s Federal Environment Agency (UBA) one month before.
There are also surveys tackling the view from the outside on Germany’s energy policy. Another July 2025 survey among energy sector experts in dozens of countries by the World Energy Council (WEC) found that scepticism regarding the country’s energy policy choices is growing among Germany’s European neighbours.
