Analysis and Opinion on the Climate and Sustainability Debate, edited @Chair of Climate Communication, University of Hamburg
As a follow-up on our Nature Climate Change study (Brüggemann et al. 2017) called “The appeasement effect of a United Nations climate summit on the German public”, we have now published a working paper tracing changes in public attitudes and behavioral intentions over a longer period of time.
The paper compares data from our 2015, 2018 and 2019 Down to Earth surveys while also linking changes in public opinion to the media coverage on climate change.
Wie schon 2015 und 2018 haben wir auch in diesem Jahr während der Klimakonferenz eine deutschlandweite Online-Befragung durchgeführt. Die Befragung gehört zum Forschungsprojekt Down2Earth, geleitet von Michael Brüggemann an der Universität Hamburg, in dem wir Einstellungen, Mediennutzung, Wissen und Handeln der Menschen zu den Themen Klimawandel und Klimapolitik untersuchen.
Einstellungen zu Klimawandel und Klimapolitik
Im Vergleich zu den vorigen Befragungen zeigt sich nochmals ein signifikanter Anstieg in der Problemwahrnehmung: Inzwischen nennen 38,5 Prozent der Deutschen den Klimawandel als eines der zwei wichtigsten Probleme, denen Deutschland derzeit gegenübersteht (2018: 29,5%, 2015: 14,6%).
Mahl, Daniela, Brüggemann, Michael, Guenther, Lars, & De Silva-Schmidt, Fenja (2020). Public opinion at a tipping point: Germany’s path to engaging with climate change. Down to Earth Working Paper, March 2020. DOI: 10.25592/uhhfdm.851
De Silva-Schmidt, Fenja & Brüggemann, Michael (2019). Klimapolitik in den Medien – Das Publikum erwartet mehr. Befunde einer Befragung zu den UN-Klimagipfeln 2015 und 2018. Media Perspektiven 3/2019, 107-113. Available online
At the International Communication Associations’ annual conference, which took place in San Diego/USA this year, researchers from our team presented first results from the Down to Earth project (“Climate Engagement in a Digital Age: Exploring the Drivers of Participation in Climate Discourse Online in the Context of COP21”) as well as research on how the COP21 was reported on Twitter (“Opportunity Makes Opinion Leaders: Analyzing the Role of First-Hand Information for Opinion Leadership in Social Media Networks”).
Besides, Michael Brüggemann was invited to a spontaneous interview with the online video literary magazine GuerillaReads, who “invited ICA presenters to share their work guerrilla-style. ”
More information and all other interviews can be found on their site.
von Fenja De Silva-Schmidt
Auf der European Communication Conference in Prag haben wir erste Ergebnisse aus der Tagebuchstudie des Projekts “Down to Earth” präsentiert. Für den Vortrag wurden die Angaben zu den Gesprächen der 41 Teilnehmer über den Klimawandel analysiert, die sie im Zeitraum der Klimakonferenz in Paris 2015 geführt hatten.
Continue reading Erste Ergebnisse aus der Tagebuchstudie präsentiert
Results from our Down to Earth study have been featured in an article about the communication of international climate conferences. Imke Hoppe was interviewed as a spokesperson of our team by editor Jan Wisniewski from the magazine “Communication Director” and talked about the public’s perception of the COP21.
Unfortunately, the article is not available for free, but the first two pages can be read in the online preview of the issue (Communication Director 3/2016, pp. 50-54).
How do German citizens perceive climate change? What do they know about climate politics? And how do they evaluate national and international efforts against climate change?
Within the framework of our “Down to Earth” study, we aimed to answer these and further questions with an online survey with more than 2000 persons, conducted in Germany two weeks before this year’s climate conference in Paris.