World is Ready to Make Sacrifices

It's true, according to a recent BBC poll of 22,000 people in 21 countries, the world is ready to make some sacrifices to save the planet. And some are more willing than others: 60-68% of people interviewed in Spain, Mexico, Italy, China and Canada agreed that lifestyle changes were necessary whilst Nigeria, U.S., Kenya and India did not think that they had to do anything to their life style. When it comes to energy costs, Europe and the U.S. agreed that it would be necessary to increase the price of oil and coal in order to discourage usage. Russians and Italians did not concur.

Respondents were split on agreement to raise taxes on energy sources. Most Chinese favour raising them (84%) followed by the Australians, Chileans, British and Canadians (all in the 60% range). However, if the monies raised by taxation were used towards the development of alternate fuel sources and other taxes were lowered, then almost every country is in agreement. Given the size of the sampling this is an optimistic statement about our fellow world citizens. As the director of the polling company commented "This poll clearly shows that people are much more ready to endure their share of the burden than most politicians grant." Another pollster was even more optimistic, and thought that "national leaders could succeed in introducing a carbon tax on energy, the key requirement is that their citizens trust that the resulting tax revenues will be invested in addressing climate change by increasing energy efficiency and developing cleaner fuels." :: BBC News

Tags: England | London


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