Nearly half of Bulgarians support shift to renewable energy - EIB survey
Nearly half of Bulgarians believe that the country should rely on renewable energy sources to fight global warming, a survey by the European Investment Bank (EIB), the EU's lending arm, showed.
As many as 48% of Bulgarians favour renewable energy sources to address the climate emergency, which is 15 percentage points lower than the EU average, the EIB said, quoting the results of its 2021-2022 Climate Survey published on Thursday.
Bulgarians are much more supportive of nuclear energy than other Europeans.
Nearly a quarter of Bulgarians opt for nuclear energy, compared to an EU average of 12%. Support is stronger among people older than 64, people people with left-leaning political views and people with higher incomes.
Bulgaria has one nuclear power plant, Kozloduy, operating two units of 1,000 MW each.
The survey also found 58% of Bulgarians support stricter government measures imposing behavioural changes to address the climate emergency.
As many as 77% of Bulgarian people think that climate change and its consequences are the biggest challenge for humanity, while 78% feel that climate change has an impact on their everyday lives.
Meanwhile, 83% believe that they personally are more concerned about the climate emergency than their government. As a consequence, they are skeptical regarding Bulgaria’s capability to undergo an ambitious green transition. The majority, 64%, think the country will fail in drastically reducing its carbon emissions by 2050, as pledged in the Paris Agreement.
Only 11% of Bulgarians believe that global warming is not due to human activities.
To fight climate change, 72% of Bulgarians would support the introduction of a tax on products and services that contribute most to global warming. This percentage is close to that for the whole EU, which is 69%.
Furthermore, 92% of Bulgarians are in favour of a five-year minimum warranty on any electric or electronic product, with 89% supporting replacing short-distance flights with fast, low-emission trains.
As much as 97% favour softer measures like strengthening education and increasing youth awareness of sustainable consumption.
In total, more than 30 000 respondents participated in the 2021-2022 Climate Survey between August 26 and September 22, with a representative panel for each of the 30 countries polled.