Impact of climate change on environmental concerns, attitudes and behaviors

The increasing frequency of anomalous weather phenomena since 2022 has significantly heightened environmental concerns in Spain. However, the growing worry about the effects of climate change has not been sufficient to generate a positive impact on sustainable behaviors. Among the three dimensions of sustainable behavior, the one related to financial support has dropped sharply, the one related to support for activism tends to decrease, and only the one related to consumption has increased. The reasons we found for this poor trend are: the politicization of environmental issues, which distances conservative citizens from sustainability. The decrease in purchasing power explains the sharp decline in financial support for the environment, but we also find that other behaviors and attitudes are declining among those with lower purchasing power, widening the gap between wealthier citizens who are increasingly involved in sustainability and impoverished citizens who disengage and become indifferent. Another contributing factor is that young people are less involved in ecology, and media messages focus on the problems rather than the effects of actions. The study is based on secondary analysis of the Spanish ISSP Environment III and IV surveys (2010-2023), an analysis of search terms related to climate change in Google Trends (2004-2024), and a press review of climate change articles in Spain (2014-2023).