Many Europeans care about climate change, even if they don’t show it in the same way

As governments across Europe struggle to maintain public backing for climate policies, a series of new studies released by the European University Institute (EUI) based in Fiesole (Florence) suggests that concern about climate change is no longer confined to traditional environmentalist circles. The research points instead to a more complex reality: many people support climate action, but that support does not always translate into green votes, sympathy for climate activists or backing for every proposed measure.

Published ahead of World Environment Day on 5 June 2026, the three studies examine different stages of the relationship between environmental awareness and political behaviour. Together, they offer a broader picture of how Europeans engage with climate issues at a time when governments face growing pressure to advance the energy transition while preserving public consensus.

Can climate education build support for difficult policies?

The first study, Educational Policies Can Strengthen Climate Coalitions, investigates whether climate education can influence attitudes towards environmental policies.

Researchers conducted a large-scale field experiment involving 1,845 university students in France who participated in a three-hour interactive workshop focused on climate change and decarbonisation strategies. The study found that participants became more supportive of ambitious climate measures, including restrictions on short-haul flights and policies aimed at reducing meat consumption.

Support for these types of measures increased by around seven percentage points compared with a control group. The researchers argue that effective climate education does more than increase awareness. It can also strengthen public belief that climate policies are capable of producing meaningful results, making people more willing to accept measures that involve personal costs or behavioural changes.

The findings arrive at a time when European governments are looking for ways to build durable support for climate policies that often require significant economic and social adjustments.

Why environmental concern does not always lead to green votes

The second study, The Green Gender Gap: Environmental Attitudes and Pro-environmental Vote Choice across Europe, analysed more than two decades of survey data from 36 European countries.

It confirms a pattern observed in previous research: women consistently express stronger concern about environmental issues and climate change than men. They are also generally more supportive of climate mitigation policies and more likely to feel personally responsible for addressing environmental problems.

However, the study highlights a less obvious finding. Greater environmental concern does not automatically translate into support for green parties.

In Northern and Western Europe, where green parties are well established and electorally competitive, environmentally concerned women are more likely than men to vote for green political movements. In Southern, Central and Eastern Europe, by contrast, the link is much weaker.

The research suggests that environmental awareness alone is not enough to shape electoral outcomes. Voters also need political parties that they view as credible, visible and capable of influencing policy. In other words, concern about climate change may be widespread, but the political channels through which that concern is expressed vary significantly across Europe.

The findings challenge a common assumption in public debate: that people who care about environmental issues naturally vote for green parties. Political choices are often influenced by a wider range of priorities, including economic conditions, employment, public services and security concerns.

The limits of confrontational climate activism

The third study, How Confrontational Protest Shapes Public Opinion: Experimental Evidence from Climate Mobilization, addresses another question that has become increasingly prominent in recent years: do disruptive climate protests help or harm the environmental cause?

Using surveys and experiments conducted in Germany, researchers examined public reactions to different forms of climate activism, including demonstrations associated with movements such as Fridays for Future and Last Generation.

The results suggest that confrontational tactics, such as road blockades or symbolic actions targeting works of art, can reduce public sympathy towards climate activists. The negative reaction is particularly visible among people who are already broadly supportive of climate action and tend to lean politically to the left.

Yet the study also identifies an important distinction between attitudes towards activists and attitudes towards climate policies.

While respondents often expressed less sympathy for disruptive forms of protest, their support for climate measures remained largely unchanged. Opposition to a protest tactic did not necessarily translate into opposition to the environmental goals behind it.

The findings suggest that highly visible acts of civil disobedience may generate controversy and polarisation without fundamentally altering public attitudes towards climate policy itself.

Beyond awareness

Viewed together, the three studies challenge a common assumption in climate politics: that concern for the environment automatically translates into support for a particular party, movement or form of activism.

The evidence suggests something more complex. Environmental protection is increasingly a broadly shared value across European societies, even among citizens who make very different electoral choices or disagree on the tactics used by climate activists.

If that is the case, the most significant political disagreements may no longer concern the need to address climate change itself. They may instead revolve around the pace of the transition, the policies required to achieve it, and the distribution of its economic and social costs.

That distinction matters. It suggests that climate politics is gradually moving from a debate over goals to a debate over methods, a sign that environmental concerns are becoming embedded in mainstream political life rather than remaining the preserve of a single political camp.

(Cover photo by Johann Siemens via Unsplash)

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