The environmental and climate crises worry the French. This is shown by an Ipsos-Sopra Steria poll for France Télévisions*, published on Thursday March 3. At the question “In general, would you say you are worried or not about environmental protection and climate change?”, 80% of respondents answered in the affirmative. Among them, 25% even say they “very worried”. It is among the youngest that this concern is strongest (92% of those under 35).
Despite this concern, the economic and social situation often takes precedence over the environmental emergency. According to the survey, 55% of French people say they are close to the following statement: “Faced with the economic and social situation, we must take rapid and energetic measures, even if this means putting the environmental issue on the back burner for the moment”. Conversely, 45% consider that “Faced with the environmental emergency, we must take rapid and energetic measures, even if this means asking the French to make financial sacrifices”.
Faced with these challenges, respondents were asked about several solutions. First of all, the energy transition. Energy use is the primary source of greenhouse gas emissions – responsible for climate change – in France, accounting for 70.1% of the country’s total emissions in 2018. Over 70% of people surveyed by our poll judge “desirable” to make hydroelectricity (92%), solar (91%), biomass (87%) and wind power (71%) major sources of energy for France. Nuclear is more debated, with 65% of favorable opinion. Last come gas and oil, fossil fuels that emit a lot of greenhouse gases.
Getting to the heart of the matter, 51% of respondents are however of the opinion that it is necessary “stop the construction of wind turbines in France because they damage the landscape and are not efficient in producing energy”compared to 49% who consider this source of energy “clean and sustainable, essential for the energy transition”. On the revival of nuclear power, announced by Emmanuel Macron, 55% of those questioned are of the opinion of building new reactors “because it is cheap energy for consumers”. Conversely, 45% want “exit gradually because it is an insecure energy and the production of which is costly for the State”.
Another solution debated by the survey: the conversion of private vehicles. Asked about “the ban on the sale of new thermal vehicles (gasoline, diesel) in 2035”all categories of the population are leaning in the same direction (young and old, executives, intermediate professions, workers or retirees and voters from all parties except EELV): they say they are mostly (71%) “opposed because electric vehicles are too expensive and not efficient enough (range, charging time, etc.)”.
To take these questions in hand, however, the majority of the French do not trust the candidates for the presidential election of 2022, according to our survey. None of the candidates won the confidence of more than half of the French people questioned. The environmental candidate Yannick Jadot comes first with 34% of favorable opinions, ahead of Emmanuel Macron – who, on March 2, has still not officially declared himself a candidate – (32%) and Jean-Luc Mélenchon (24%). At the end of the ranking are the candidate – who has since withdrawn from the race on Wednesday – Christiane Taubira (18%), Fabien Roussel (18%) and Eric Zemmour (16%).
* Methodology: study carried out using the quota method using an online questionnaire. 990 people, constituting a representative sample of the French population aged 18 and over, were interviewed on February 25 and 26, 2022. For this study, Ipsos-Sopra Steria displays a confidence interval of 95%.