Australians reluctant to go electric or change behaviour for climate change

New research suggests that Australians are less likely change their behaviours to reduce their greenhouse gas emissions, compared to residents of other countries.

The new global survey has been undertaken by IPSOS and found that Australians were less likely to shift to sustainable transport options, including taking less flights or using public transport, and less than half of Australians had a plan for reducing their household energy use.

The study found that while Australians were more likely to take steps to avoid purchasing products with a lot of packaging, and were more willing to buy second hand goods, they were  less likely to use more efficient household appliances, or reduce meat and dairy consumption.

“Despite a high public demand for government and businesses to take climate action, there is a lot of inertia to overcome in getting people to make changes in their own behaviours,” IPSOS director Stuart Clark said.

“It is very clear that many Australians are unable or unwilling to make changes to their lifestyles, and that we lag behind many other countries in this respect.”

“Encouraging and enabling the public to take up highly impactful initiatives like eating less meat and dairy, using public transport and going carless or buying an electric vehicle requires a combination of education, cultural change and improved services and infrastructure,” Clark added.

IPSOS surveyed more than 23,500 people drawn from 31 different countries.

The survey found that those living throughout Asia, including China, South Korea, Malaysia and India were more likely to change their practices in an effort to reduce their contribution to climate change.

Citizens from European countries, as well as Australia, were generally less likely to change their behaviour.

The research suggests that a lack of government support for some actions – such as the lack of federal policies supporting the uptake of electric vehicles – might be creating barriers and contributing to a wider apathy amongst Australians to change their behaviours.

The survey also found that respondents from all countries were likely to overestimate the climate benefits of some actions while also underestimating the benefits of others.

For example, respondents were more likely to identify recycling as the most impactful action for reducing their emissions footprint, while overlooking more effective measures like living car-free or making energy efficiency improvements to their home.

Adopting diets with less meat and diary were uniformly unpopular across respondents from all countries, despite having some of the greatest impacts in terms of cutting emissions footprints.

“Globally, less than half say they are likely to make changes such as eating fewer dairy products (41% vs 29% in Australia), eating less meat (44% vs 35% in Australia), changing their household heating system to a low carbon system (44% vs 32% in Australia), despite these being some of the most effective ways in cutting carbon emissions,” IPSOS said.

Australians were also least likely to give up their beloved pets, despite their high greenhouse emissions footprint.

“Around the world, few can correctly identify actions which would have the most impact on reducing greenhouse gas emissions,” Ipsos said.

“Of the list given, people are most likely to say recycling is the best way to reduce emissions (49 per cent). In reality, according to the study, this is considered the 60th most impactful action.”

“When asked what changes they are likely to make in order to combat climate change over the next year, avoiding excess packaging still heads the bill, with 58 per cent expecting to make this change over the coming year (verses 59 per cent in 2021).”

“The public show least intention to change on higher impact actions such as dietary changes, and avoiding flights, though there have been increases in expectation to change on these measures since 2021.”

The survey found that people are more likely to overestimate the amount of global warming that has occurred. But a significant proportion – 42 per cent – reported not knowing how much the world has warmed.