Richard Nennstiel¹; Olivia Steiert²

¹ University of Bern; ² New School for Social Research

In 2018, climate change discourse shifted dramatically, framing it as a crisis or emergency in political debates, protests, and news. While some observers feared such rhetoric might harm democratic politics, public perceptions of climate change during this shift remain underexplored. This study analyzes Eurobarometer survey data (2002–2023, 28 countries, N=1,229,479) to examine how risk perceptions and the salience of climate change evolved, focusing on changes around 2018–2019.

Multilevel regression analyses reveal that this discursive shift coincided with marked increases in issue salience and perceived risk, though the latter was less pronounced. These changes varied across countries and were influenced by individual factors such as education, gender, age, political ideology, and trust in media. Additionally, group differences in perceptions widened in some countries during the 2018–2019 peak.

Findings suggest that intensified public discourse around climate change may heighten awareness but also polarize perceptions within and across European Union countries, highlighting challenges for fostering collective action.

Marcus Gercke

Otto-von-Guericke-Universität Magdeburg

This paper investigates how social class structures individual responses to climate-related risks in contemporary risk societies. Drawing on Ulrich Beck’s theory of reflexive modernization, I examine whether rising global environmental risks lead to a dissolution of class-based distinctions—or whether how people perceive risks and respond to them is still characterized by a class gradient.

Two core dimensions of politicized environmental consciousness are analyzed: individuals’ perception of climate-related risks and their willingness to bear the costs of environmental protection. Social class is operationalized using the European Socio-Economic Classification (ESeC), enabling a detailed analysis of stratified differences in these key outcomes.

Multilevel models are applied to data from four waves of the International Social Survey Pro-gramme (1993–2020) covering 20 countries. The study focuses on classed patterns of environ-mental concern and cost acceptance as indicators of a potential risk-class for itself—a social collective defined not by shared exposure to environmental hazards, but by a shared awareness of ecological problems and the readiness to act appropriately.

The results contribute to ongoing debates about the social distribution of risks in late modern societies. Do climate-related risks produce new forms of political subjectivity that transcend class lines? Or do class lines still govern who perceives ecological risks, feels responsible, and is willing to act?

Andreas Diekmann¹; Katrin Auspurg²; Henning Best³; Christiane Bozoyan²; Claudia Schmiedeberg²

¹ Universities Konstanz and Leipzig; ² LMU München; ³ RPTU Kaiserslautern-Landau

Climate change and the depletion of the Earth’s natural resources are among the largest challenges humanity currently faces. In light of this, the German Longitudinal Environmental Study (GLEN) aims at investigating the incentives, restrictions, attitudes, and beliefs that underlie human-environment interactions. In doing so, the GLEN project aims to provide a foundation for evidence-based environmental policy assessments and guidance. The project will build up a large-scale panel study of the adult population in Germany in which the same individuals will be repeatedly observed over time using a standardized and stable online survey instrument. In this presentation, we explain the research design and the data collection process for the recruitment survey and the first waves of the panel. We also present preliminary analyses of environmental attitudes, behavior, and the acceptance of climate policy measures.

Felix Ries¹; Tom Behringer²

¹ Leipzig University; ² Rheinland-Pfälzische Technische Universität Kaiserslautern-Landau (RPTU)

Traditional surveys on environmental behavior often rely on self-reported actions like recycling or purchasing eco-friendly products. While informative, such measures provide limited insight into broader behavioral domains significantly impacting individual CO₂ emissions. This study presents a survey module designed to comprehensively capture individual CO₂ emissions across four key domains: mobility, housing, diet, and consumption.

Integrated into the 12-year German Longitudinal Environmental Study (GLEN), the module enables detailed tracking of individual environmental impacts over time. It captures key life events, such as job transitions and school departures, to analyze how CO₂ emissions evolve across life stages. Additionally, it examines the influence of external factors, such as policy changes, shifting CO₂ prices, and natural disasters, providing insights into the interaction between individual behavior and systemic changes. Linking these data to attitudinal measures further allows an exploration of how values, beliefs, and norms shape environmental behavior.

Compared to existing surveys, this CO₂ module is more detailed, capturing lifestyle changes and technological investments. Unlike commercial CO₂ calculators, which often lack transparency, it explicitly documents estimation principles, assumptions, and data sources, ensuring replicability and reliability.

By integrating behavioral, attitudinal, and contextual data, this module facilitates a systematic analysis of individual-level environmental impacts over time. Its design offers a novel framework for understanding environmental behavior dynamics and their relationship to inequality, spatial contexts, and policy shifts. Data collection for the first panel wave will begin in spring 2025, allowing initial results to be presented.