'We won't pay to stop climate change' - SA consumers

While South Africans were becoming more concerned about climate change, this wasn’t translating into action given that consumers are reluctant to carry the costs of initiatives to curb greenhouse emissions, a survey from the Human Sciences Research Council (HSRC) highlights.

The 2007 South African Social Attitudes Survey sampled 3164 people, finding that of the 72 percent of respondents who knew what global warming was were all well educated in the causes of climate change. Almost half (44%) were more concerned about the effects of climate change than they were a year ago.

Yet, only 71 percent of participants believed the problem was “very serious” or “somewhat serious”, significantly lower than in other nations.

Compared to other nations, South Africans’ perceptions of the dangers of climate change was significantly lower than the almost 95 percent of Brazilians and about 90 percent of Britons, Canadians and Indians rated global climate change as a “very serious” or “somewhat serious” threat in the 2006 GlobalScan Poll, which included 30 countries.

However, according to HSRC researcher John Seager, there are many other more salient problems pressing South Africans, who see climate change as “a distant threat”.

“When we asked people what the most important challenges facing SA were, the list started with unemployment, HIV/Aids, economic issues and poverty,” said Seager

In the list of challenges, environment was placed at 10.
“If you’re not sure where your next meal is coming from, it’s more pressing than something that will affect future generations,” he added.

The respondents were supportive of government expenditure on developing wind farms (73%) or reducing the cost of energy saving devices (72%). However, they did not believe that the costs of consuming, through increased levies on fuel and electricity, should be increased to encourage reduced consumption. Taxes and levies to fund improved public transport were also out of favour.

Seagre added that although the participants are more aware of the pitfalls of climate change, “greater efforts will be required to increase general awareness and to ‘catch up’ with public opinion in other countries”.

Years of dirt cheap, yet dirty coal electricity may also have made South Africans complacent in the usage of power.