Results

Part 1: Awareness and understanding of energy and environmental issues

In response to the question, ‘have you heard of the following phrases?’, descriptive statistical analysis, for the entire sample, revealed generally high levels of awareness of energy sources (particularly nuclear) and environmental issues, with the exception of LA21. This information if summarised in the table below.

Table 3: Levels of awareness of energy and environmental issues

	%
Energy efficiency	78.8
Nuclear energy	98.4
Global warming	90.5
Greenhouse gases	88.0
Renewable energy	88.4
Climate change	94.3
Local Agenda	21 33.8
Kyoto protocol	74.2
Fossil-fuels	91.6
Sustainable Development	74.3

Analysis for between country differences for awareness of nuclear energy revealed great similarity across the 7 featured countries. In excess of 90% of respondents from each country had heard of nuclear energy. The picture for awareness of ‘renewable energy’ was quite different. Highest awareness levels existed in Portugal (99%) and the UK (94%) which contrasted with far lower levels in Romania (68.1%), Austria (80%) and Greece (81%). Finally, awareness levels for ‘fossil fuels’ were high across all countries (i.e. >89%) with the exception of Romania (74%). The results suggest that levels of awareness within
the Romanian sample for words and phrases describing non-nuclear forms of energy were lower than in other European countries.

Levels of understanding were measured using a measure asking respondents to indicate which of several listed energy sources could be accurately described as renewable. The descriptive statistics for the entire sample are summarised in the table below.

Table 4: Levels of understanding of renewable and non-renewable energy sources

 

Which of the following are renewable ?	Yes %	No %	Unsure %
Nuclear	13.5	74.2	12.2
Natural Gas	19.5	74.7	5.9
Wind	93.3	4.8	2.0
Biomass	55.4	34.0	10.6
Coal	11.4	80.8	7.8
Solar	88.3	8.2	3.5
Oil / Diesel	9.9	83.6	6.5
Waves / Tides	88.6	7.0	6.3
Hydro	77.1	10.9	12.0
Geothermal	71.5	13.8	14.7
Energy from Waste	42.6	36.4	21.0

The table indicates that wind is the most 'prototypical' form of renewable energy, with solar and waves/tides also widely recognised. Less accurately recognised forms of renewable energy included hydro, geothermal and biomass. The statistics revealed some confusion between energy sources. In particular, 19.5% of respondents responded that 'natural gas' was a form of renewable energy, perhaps indicating confusion amongst respondents between ‘natural’ and ‘renewable’ energy resources. Finally, energy from waste was the least consensual form of energy that was respondent to, with virtually similar proportions of respondents responding 'yes' and 'no', and high levels of ‘unsure’ response.

Further analyses revealed several differences between specific countries in terms of accurate recognition of renewable energy resources. For example, for wind energy, results indicated that levels of recognition were high in the UK, Austria, Portugal, Greece and Hungary (i.e. >93%), yet markedly lower in two Eastern European states: Slovakia (73.1%) and Romania (86.1%). An even more marked pattern was revealed for understanding of solar energy. Of the Slovakian respondents, only 33.8% agreed that it was a form of renewable energy. As in the previous question, the level of awareness in Romania was also slightly lower in comparison to the rest of the sampled countries (85.9%), which indicated levels of agreement of greater than 93%. Finally, the generally varied response for knowledge of whether ‘energy from waste’ may be considered a form of RE was repeated across all surveyed states, suggesting widely-held, low levels of understanding about this form of energy source across all surveyed countries.

In terms of specific items probing fossil-fuels, analysis by specific countries revealed that the specific fuel of natural gas was the form of fossil-fuel most commonly mistakenly indicated as a form of renewable energy. Whilst respondents in the UK and Hungary were least likely to respond that natural gas was a form of renewable energy, this belief contrasted markedly with the result for respondents from Greece (33.8%), Austria (34.6%) and Romania (35.4%), where approximately one third of respondents indicated that natural gas was a form of renewable energy. In the remaining countries, the numbers of respondents agreeing that natural gas was a form of renewable energy varied between 17.8% (Portugal) and 25.4% (Slovakia). The results suggest that ‘natural’ is often confounded with ‘renewable’ by the public. Secondly, the pattern of country specific response indicated that this is a perception that is found not only amongst the Romanian sample but also amongst Western European respondents resident in Greece and Austria.