84% of participants believe that industry is the most polluting sector while this primacy belongs to the energy sector. Only 21% are aware that the agricultural sector is among the most impactful in terms of carbon emissions, immediately after the energy sector. With 42% of correct answers, a certain awareness emerges that waste treatment is among the last sectors for climate-altering gas emissions. These are the results of the survey launched by Aeneas with the initiative “If you don't know, SALLO! Everything you ever wanted to know about climate change (and you never dared to ask)”, a few days before the G20 and on the occasion of the Cop26 in Glasgow.
The contradiction lies in the fact that while on the one hand it is always easier to find information, with data that accumulate continuously, more than usual, our knowledge of a situation, its causes and effects, however, remain scarce and confused. And it is not easy to navigate the world of the internet, where the fake news have exploded: media, web, politics. Today disinformation can be hidden everywhere and if the environment in which we live is increasingly polluted, the responsibility does not lie with just one person, or in this case with an instrument. It takes an individual effort to make the world a safer and more aware place.
And today we can no longer ignore the climate crisis we are experiencing. On the extreme urgency of stepping up the global response to deal with the problem, it becomes essential to raise public awareness and consolidate knowledge of the causes and consequences of climate change, strengthening the dialogue between science and civil society. This is the goal of the research and innovation agency.
Climate: what do Italians really know?
Worrying lack of information emerges in the Enea survey. With regard to Climate and global warming, 9 out of 10 correctly answered the question "Climate change has always existed but has undergone a significant acceleration since the beginning of the 900s". Almost everyone is convinced that the melting of glaciers (97%) and the increase in mean sea level (86%) are caused by climate change; but only 42% correctly answered the question "The 2003 heat wave is attributable to the fever of the Planet" and 32% to the question "Climate change and growing human pressure on the environment are among the causes of the Covid pandemic -19”.
In terms of Policies and strategies for the fight against climate change, almost 50% do not know the Paris Agreement or the dates of the COP26 in Glasgow, while 50% still know the existence of the Integrated National Plan for Energy and Climate but not the objectives of decarbonisation by 2030.
But there is also good news. From section Expectations and Best Practices, however, it emerges that many Italians already adopt virtuous practices such as separate waste collection (94%), the reduction of the use of plastic packaging (53%) or disposable plastics (74%), the containment of water and energy consumption (71%) and buying local and seasonal food (79%). However, 21% and 19% of participants respectively say they are against reducing air travel and meat consumption.
“The questionnaire, made up of 20 questions divided into 5 sections, was completed by over 1.300 people, mostly of Italian nationality, aged between 10 and over 80 and an average of 34, with 60 % who did not exceed 40. To our satisfaction, about 30% were aged between 10 and 20 years. The regions that participated most were Emilia-Romagna, Lazio and Puglia, while the provinces that responded the most were Rome and Bologna,” he explained. Melanie Michetti, Enea researcher of the Models and technologies division for the reduction of anthropic impacts and natural risks who conceived the survey.
Climate: Misconceptions
In the Impacts and costs of climate change, 94% of the participants answered that “Animals and plants will not suffer the effects of climate change thanks to their ability to adapt”; while only 43% know that "in Italy, the impact of climate change can affect up to 8% of per capita GDP". A good awareness also emerges that climate change will not favor coastal tourism (91% of correct answers), but will instead increase the number of climate migrants (81%); less well known is instead that there will be positive effects on some crops (62%), and that, among the possible effects, it will also be possible to observe the variation of trade routes by water (34%).
At the level of Sector and country contributions to greenhouse gas emissions, it is known that China is among the largest greenhouse gas emitting countries in absolute terms, while the United States has the highest per capita emissions; less known is instead that China itself has relatively low per capita emissions in relation to the number of the population, together with Europe and India, and that the countries with the highest emissions per inhabitant are the USA, Russia and Japan.
“We disseminate the results of the survey on the occasion of the Glasgow COP26, which should mark a further step forward after the Paris climate agreements of 2015. We expect that in this UN summit the leaders of the strongest economies that lead the ranking of the major greenhouse gas emitters will suggest concrete and measurable actions for the reduction of climate-changing gas emissions,” he said Gian Maria Sannino, head of ENEA's Climate Modeling and Impact Laboratory.
Sannino then concluded by sounding the alarm: “Currently the commitments made by all the countries of the world for 2030 translate into a reduction in emissions far lower than that necessary not to exceed the 2°C limit. There is no time to lose: the average temperature of the Earth has already increased by 1,1 °C, as revealed by the latest IPCC report”.
