Survey: Sixty Percent of Austrians See Country Poorly Prepared for Climate Change

The share of those who currently consider climate change important has risen significantly since March. While it stood at 57 percent in March, it had already reached 62 percent in June — nearly two-thirds. The share of respondents who found a concrete reason to think about climate change within the past week also climbed from 28 percent in March to 59 percent at the end of June. Heat waves and temperature records thus translated directly into perception, as the managing director of the polling institute explained.

Personal Concern Rising

At the same time, skepticism toward the state's preparations prevails. Only 40 percent considered Austria well prepared at the time of the survey. "The climate issue is still happily swept under the rug," Bertram Barth, managing director of Integral, was quoted as saying. He also pointed to widespread unease toward policymakers: "That will change again, but an unease remains, and the accusation that politicians are failing here is confirmed anew with every new extreme weather event."

Concern cuts across generations: 67 percent of 16- to 29-year-olds worried about climate change, putting them almost on par with the 50- to 75-year-olds, of whom 66 percent are concerned. The monitor also shows a divided middle, however. "Currently we again see a divided middle," Barth explained. While part of the population recognizes the urgency, the old middle — the milieu of the nostalgic-bourgeois — plays down the heat wave: "Heiße Sommer hat es früher auch gegeben" and in this way fend off a more intensive engagement with climate change.

Division in Society

Barth placed the results in a social context: "Wie wichtig Menschen den Klimawandel einschätzen, hängt stark mit ihren Werthaltungen und Lebensperspektiven zusammen". This produces a nuanced picture in which personal concern and institutional preparedness diverge significantly.

Despite the critical assessment of state preparations, a large majority favors the expansion of renewable energies. 84 percent of respondents support this expansion in principle, 44 percent even strongly. This finding suggests that citizens expect policymakers above all to deliver concrete measures rather than new debates about the fundamental necessity of the energy transition.

High Support for Renewable Energies

Overall, the monitor paints a picture of a population that increasingly experiences climate change as a pressing everyday issue but judges policymakers' preparations as insufficient. The coming summer months, with further heat waves, are likely to intensify the debate further.

The results are based on an online survey of 1,000 people between the ages of 18 and 75, representative of the Austrian resident population in this age group. According to the institute, the next survey cycle of the Climate Concern Monitor is planned for spring 2027; an exact date has not yet been set.