2025 Barometer of Social Perceptions of Climate Change: A Significant Level of Concern Among the French

This year's results reveal that while the French are still in favour of strong action on climate change, their view of the collective capacity to act to try to limit its effects tends towards pessimism.

For Sylvain Waserman, President and CEO of ADEME: “Since the Paris Agreement, our fellow citizens have changed their consumption habits, their mobility patterns, their energy use… This barometer bears witness to this: the French declare that they have done their part for the climate. But it also reveals a strong expectation: that of a simultaneous acceleration of public action. To achieve carbon neutrality by 2050, the State must continue to support, encourage, and amplify these transformations throughout the country.”

A significant level of concern among the French regarding the consequences of climate change

Nearly eight out of ten French people consider environmental protection important, but compared to other current issues, their top priorities remain rising prices (20%), public deficits and debt (17%), immigration (14%), and the safety of people and property (11%), ahead of the environment, the ecological transition, and public health (8% each). The most pressing environmental problem is climate change (49%), far ahead of biodiversity loss (33%), water pollution (28%), and soil pollution (20%).

While more than half of French people now report having already experienced the consequences of climate change where they live (52%), this figure was less than a quarter in 2015 (24%). Although 52% believe that scientists accurately assess climate risks, a quarter of the population (25%) think they underestimate the risks and 22% believe they exaggerate them.

Moreover, 72% of French people say they are worried about climate change, with 27% being very worried. In the last 10 years, pessimism about climate change and its consequences has grown: since 2016, there has been a 10-point increase in the number of people who do not believe that climate change will be limited to reasonable levels by the end of the century (from 56% to 66%), and who anticipate that living conditions will become extremely difficult due to climate disruptions (from 55% to 65%). There is also a greater pessimism regarding the possibilities of adapting: while 40% were hopeful that we would adapt without too much difficulty in 2016, that figure has dropped to only 30% today.

The French expect more from the public authorities.

For more than six out of ten French people, the actions implemented in France since the Paris Agreement have not met the objectives set.

76% believe that environmental protection regulations should be strengthened, while 23% think they should be relaxed. Two-thirds of French people believe that the priority of economic policy should be to fundamentally reorient the economy by supporting only environmentally friendly activities, whereas 33% believe that all sectors should be supported, even at the risk of negative consequences for some environmental objectives.

The actors considered most effective in addressing climate change remain states (49%) and citizens (46%), followed by international bodies (28%) and businesses (26%). However, among those who take the most action, the French place citizens first (41%), followed by local authorities (32%), and far behind, states (26%), then associations (22%), businesses (18%), and international bodies (17%).

Nearly 8 out of 10 French people believe their region will have to take significant measures in the coming decades to adapt to climate change. Among those aware of the measures already taken (59%), 42% consider them insufficient (up 6 points compared to 2024).

The French have consistently declared themselves largely in favor of a set of ambitious public policies regarding ecological transition, in particular:

• 82% consider the development of renewable energies to be desirable;
• 77% are in favour of banning advertising for products with a high environmental impact;
• 70% support an obligation for owners to renovate and insulate housing when selling or renting;
• 67% say they are in favour of requiring public institutional catering to offer more vegetarian, organic and/or seasonal menus;
• 62% are in favor of taxing air transport more heavily in favor of rail.

The French, who have mobilized extensively in recent years, are now showing signs of fatigue.

In the last 10 years, the French have significantly changed their practices. For example:

• lowering the temperature of their home by 2 or 3°C in winter: +19 points, from 48% to 67% today;
• consume less: +19pts, 37% to 56%;
• limit their meat consumption: +14 points, from 39% to 53%;
• buying seasonal vegetables: +13 points (from 58% to 71%);
• choosing products with less impact on the environment: +11pts (from 28% to 39%).

But today there is an increase in resistance to changing one's lifestyle: when 12% declared in 2016 that they would accept changes provided they remained in moderate proportions, not being ready to accept radical changes, they are 19% today.

Demobilized youth?

Aside from mobility practices, young people report having adopted fewer environmentally friendly practices than their elders. For example:

• Sorting waste: 96% of those over 65 say they do it, compared to 51% of 18-24 year olds;
• Lowering the temperature of their home by two or three degrees in winter: 79% of those over 65 say they do this, compared to 40% of 18-24 year olds;
• Buying seasonal vegetables: 87% of those over 65 say they do so, compared to 40% of 18-24 year olds;
• Limiting meat consumption: 62% of those over 65 say they do so, compared to 37% of 18-24 year olds.

Meanwhile, 19% of 18-24 year olds say they are doing their best, compared to 31% of French people on average, and 27% are not ready to accept radical changes in their lifestyle, compared to 19% on average.

The barometer is available here.

[1] Established in 2000, the barometer is a tool for understanding public opinion on the ecological transition and the actions expected. The survey was carried out in July with a sample of 1.580 people representative of the French population in Metropolitan France, aged 15 and over, constituted according to the quota method with regard to the criteria of sex, age, socio-professional category, size of urban area and region of residence.

Illustrative image of the article via Depositphotos.com.