Switzerland

Some 30% of Swiss people have changed their everyday habits because of Swedish climate activist Greta Thunberg’s “Fridays for Future” movement, according to a study by the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology Lausanne (EPFL).

It examined the effects of the first climate strikes in Switzerland. The results showed “that people have become more aware of how their behaviour affects the environment”, wrote the lead author of the study, Livia Fritz, in the latest issue of the journal Sustainability Science.

According to the study, most of the perceived changes concerned transport, buying habits and recycling. For example, about a third of the respondents said they were now more likely to look for alternatives to driving to work. They would also look for local organic products, eat more vegetarian meals and choose holiday destinations closer to home so they do not have to fly.

Efforts had also been made to reduce waste – especially plastic waste. Most of those who found that they had changed their behaviour had already been sensitive to environmental issues before the movement and had higher levels of education.

For their study, the researchers conducted a survey of the Swiss population in October and November 2019, shortly after the peak of the climate strikes. The survey was conducted online among 1,206 people aged 18 to 74 living in the French- or German-speaking part of the country. The respondents were representative of the Swiss population as a whole in terms of gender and age. However, people with a higher level of education were overrepresented.