Attitudes towards the use of renewable energy sources - the case of Slovenia

Bevk, Tadej (author), Kurdija, Slavko (author)

Background: A shift towards renewable energy sources (RES) is needed to reduce humanity’s carbon footprint. The measures for increasing RES are developed on multiple levels, from international policies to concrete developments of projects. They must all be well accepted in society for a successful energy transition (ET). Objectives: The aim was to compare the results of surveys on public attitudes towards ET and RES, particularly on the social acceptance of RES at different levels of consideration and in different measurement contexts. Methods: Triangulation of three data sources on different levels was made: The European Social Survey (ESS), measuring the general attitudes from a cross-country perspective; a national RES survey (as primary quantitative study) regarding the possible national RES scenarios - ranging from general attitudes to opinions about project development, and a qualitative in-situ survey of attitudes towards existing solar power plants as the most specific level. Results: The results from ESS show a discrepancy between accepting the existence of climate change on the one hand and responsibility on the other. National survey on attitudes towards RES shows growing public acceptance of wind and solar power plants but lower acceptance of hydropower across different scales of the survey. The key recognized advantage in wind and solar power plant is their environmental friendliness, while the main disadvantage is the unreliability of the energy source. The survey showed high levels of distrust of national politics in making good decisions about RES. The qualitative in-situ study revealed solar power plants as highly noticeable objects in the landscape, and that individuals often weigh the negative and positive impacts without clearly deciding which one prevails. Discussion: The results across all three surveys indicate high public agreement with the climate change paradigm across the scales but reticence toward tangible environmental measures, especially as the survey context moves from general and abstract towards local and specific. The results indicate a strong material conditionality in forming public attitudes towards energy policy and weak environmental empowerment, further fuelled by low institutional trust in Slovenia. To better understand social acceptance across scales and methodological implications of different measurements, more such comparisons are needed to draw universal or definitive conclusions. Conclusion: Looking at Slovenia's positioning in the European environmental value framework that Slovenia is at a crossroads between European countries with high levels of acknowledgement of the existence of climate change and countries with a pattern of weaker acceptance of the climate paradigm and more concrete decarbonisation measures. In several respects, the results of the primary RES survey suggest that the direct or indirect economic benefits of RES are more often chosen than the environmental benefits. Authors stress that environmental transformation (including RES implementation) will not be successful without a broader societal transformation that ensures an equitable distribution of benefits and risks

• Language: English
• Keywords: climate change, renewable energy sources, European Social Survey, public opinion, wind farms, solar power plants, sitting of energy installations
• Work type: Article
• Typology: 1.01 - Original Scientific Article
• Geographic coverage: Slovenija
• Organization: FDV - Faculty of Social Sciences
• Year: 2024
• Number of pages: Str. 1-22
• Numbering: Vol. 27, iss. 2
• PID: 20.500.12556/RUL-169296
• UDC: 316.653(497.4):620.92/.98
• ISSN on article: 1335-3608
• DOI: 10.31577/cas.2024.02.632
• COBISS.SI-ID: 223253763
• Publication date in RUL: 22.05.2025

Record is a part of a journal

• Title: Človek a spoločnosť
• Shortened title: Člov. spol.
• Publisher: Spoločenskovedný ústav SAV
• ISSN: 1335-3608
• COBISS.SI-ID: 524349977

Licences

• License: CC BY 4.0, Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International
• Link: http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/
• Description: This is the standard Creative Commons license that gives others maximum freedom to do what they want with the work as long as they credit the author.

Secondary language

• Language: Slovenian
• Keywords: podnebne spremembe, obnovljivi viri energije, Evropska socialna raziskava, javno mnenje, vetrne elektrarne, sončne elektrrne, umeščanje energetskih naprav