Public support for energy transition continues, but KfW expects less willingness to invest

A large majority of the German public continues to support the energy transition, but financial hardships as a result of the coronavirus pandemic could dampen households’ willingness to invest in climate action, said the government-owned development bank KfW. First results of its annual Energy Transition Barometer survey show that 90 percent of households regard the energy transition as important or very important, and 80 percent of respondents said their view on the project had not changed due to the pandemic (10% said it had become more important for them). However, KfW says it expects that financial constraints as a result of the pandemic will have an impact on actual household investments. Households with such constraints are much less willing to accept personal sacrifices for the energy transition, writes KfW.  

Polls show that the German public increasingly puts climate action at the top of its policy priorities and remains strongly in support of the transition to a low-carbon and nuclear-free economy. KfW 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 this edition, KfW surveyed about 4,000 households between December 2020 and January 2021.