Background to the Research

• In their introduction, the authors describe how concern for environmental issues is no longer part of a cyclical pattern that coincides with periods of economic prosperity, but a more permanent feature of society. Environmental problems are becoming larger, more complex, and more severe than before, and there is recognition that there is a link between environmental, social and economic issues.
• The United Nations Conference on Environment and Development in Rio de Janeiro in 1992, and the subsequent Agenda 21 agreement has provided the legal and policy making context for governments' environmental strategies.
• Much of Northern Ireland's environmental policy is now determined by European Union directives and regulations. NI has not experienced, to the same extent as other areas of GB, the environmental problems associated with urbanisation and industrialisation. Environmental protection policies are an important tool for maintaining the "clean environment" that is seen as a key marketing tool in promoting NI as a "green economy".
  

Research Approach

• This book chapter involves secondary analysis of data from the 1996 NISA survey.
  

Main Findings

• This book chapter is a mainly descriptive analysis of general environmental issues questions asked in the 1996 NISA survey. Attention is focused on attitudes to responsibility for environmental protection and the respective roles of government, business and industry, environmental groups and the individual.
• The authors use previous data from Stringer (1992); Yearley (1995) and Bryson et al (1997) and data from GB studies, to conduct spatial and temporal analysis. They assess general attitudes, temporal trends and compare NI attitudes to those in GB. The variables used include socio-economic status, educational qualifications, age, gender, religion, and place of residence. It is noted that these factors may explain observed differences in attitudes between NI and GB. For example, NI has a larger proportion of population than GB in lower socio-economic classes, a larger population in the younger age groups (18-30), fewer people with third level educational qualifications, a higher proportion with no formal educational qualifications, and a larger percentage living in rural areas.
• The NI population has a positive attitude towards environmental issues. There was an increasing convergence between NI and GB attitudes, but some differences remain.
• Both NI and GB respondents believe that government has a responsibility for environmental protection. Over 95% of both groups say government should impose strict laws to make industry do less damage to the environment. However, the NI population has more trust in the role of government in environmental protection than the GB population. 51% trust the government either "a lot" or "some" to make the right environmental decisions, compared to 37% in GB. There is more support for increased government spending on environmental issues than in GB and, although that support has declined over time, (54% in 1990, 47% in 1996), there has been a much steeper decline in GB support (61% in 1990, 41% in 1996).
• NI respondents had a similar level of mistrust towards business and industry on environmental issues as their GB counterparts, the level having fallen almost 10% during the period of study (1993-96). In 1993, 37% of the NI population had either "a lot" or "some" level of trust in business and industry to make the right decisions about environmental issues (26% in GB). By 1996, this had fallen to 28% in NI, (27% inGB). The level of trust in environmental groups remains high, with over 80% of both NI and GB respondents now having "a lot" or "some" trust in these groups.
• The level of trust in NI, however, has risen by 1996, with 37% stating they had "a lot" of trust in environmental groups, compared to 25% in 1993. This change mirrors the negative change in attitudes towards business and industry in the same period. In comparison to GB respondents, NI respondents believed that the individual has less influence in environmental matters. 43% of respondents either "agreed" or "strongly agreed" that it was "too difficult for someone to do much about the environment" compared to 34% in a GB survey.
• The survey investigates attitudes of respondents to environmental policies that might result in higher taxes, lower profits and fewer jobs, higher prices, or restricted car use. The results show a drop in support for environmental principles where there will either be financial costs or personal restrictions on the individual. The drop in support was most noticeable where there were direct costs to the individual, or indirect costs such as taxation. Respondents preferred government to introduce legislation that targeted business and industry, rather than the individual.
• Socio-economic status, level of educational achievement and, to a lesser extent, age were the factors most likely to influence attitudes. Class and education factors tended to have a greater influence on attitudes in NI than in GB. Older people, those with low educational qualifications, and those from lower socio-economic groups were least likely to support pro-environmental issues. Of these, education was the most marked; in comparison to the 1990 survey, education is much more prominent as a discriminating factor. The authors found that the most extreme differences in attitudes to environmental issues in NI were often those between the highest and lowest educationally qualified.
• In some cases there were variations in attitudes according to place of residence, religion and gender, but these trends were not as significant or consistent as those for the other variables. Females were slightly more supportive of general environmental issues than males, Catholics less trusting than Protestants, especially towards government, and those classified as "other" more likely to be pro-environment. Religion however, was less prominent as a predictive variable for attitudes than the other factors tested.