The majority of Germans demands more climate protection from politics and therefore considers changes in the country necessary. They see responsibility, alongside other countries, mainly with the government and the economy. This is shown by a survey conducted by the think tank More in Common, which was presented on Monday. According to the study, 55 percent of respondents agreed with the statement that politics should increase its climate protection efforts, a further 18 percent want about as much climate protection as before, and 22 percent wish for less climate protection.
More in Common questioned for the study last September 2,003 people. Compared with other topics, climate protection has become less important to many Germans. While at the start of 2024 respondents still regarded climate protection as the fourth most important topic in Germany, in the survey at the end of 2025 it was only ninth.
“Climate protection was pushed aside mainly by security-related topics,” explains David Melches, co-author of the study. “This shows how strongly the difficult economic situation and rising prices have hit.”
Jan Eichhorn, founder of the think tank dpart and political scientist at the University of Edinburgh, notes, however: When you ask people about their priorities, “they tend to repeat which topics they perceive as important in public discourse.” That means: if a topic receives less attention from politicians and journalists, it also falls in citizens’ perception. Eichhorn was not involved in the current study. He regards its methodology as acceptable.
Auch Misstrauische sorgen sich wegen des Klimawandels
While in 2021 80 percent of respondents said they were worried about global warming, in the current survey it was only 65 percent. But even among those who are distrustful of politics, science and the media, nearly half are concerned about climate change. More in Common calls this group “the Angry,” which accounts for about one-sixth of the population.
More urgency against global warming is expected by 86 percent of respondents from large industrialized nations such as the United States and China, 63 percent from the business sector, and 62 percent from the federal government.
“In general, people doubt the country’s future viability,” says Jérémie Gagné, who helped work on the study. “This need for shaping the future and the climate issue must be linked: How do we advance the country in a climate-friendly way?”
Signifikante Minderheit möchte mehr Klimaskepsis
Specifically, 85 percent of respondents want more investments in public transport and 82 percent want guarantees for the long-term development of energy prices. About two-thirds spoke in favor of financial benefits such as a climate payout and for obligating industry to climate protection and for banning particularly climate-damaging products. “If we want people to go along, they need a head start from the public sector,” says Gagné.
As in most surveys, about three quarters of those surveyed by More in Common know that the Earth is warming and that this climate change is human-made. Another quarter, however, feels that more doubts about the reality of climate change would be warranted. “That should not trigger alarm,” says political scientist Eichhorn, “but it shows that a fairly significant minority doubts the consensus.” At this point, far-right groups have successfully driven a wedge into the debate.
