Credit: Public domain.
SisaIN Magazine 시사인, together with Hankook Research 한국리서치, conducted a major survey of the South Korean public’s attitude toward the climate crisis, with several data points indicating the public willingness to act.
There was little doubt among the public about what causes climate change: 86.7% said human activity caused climate change. Young women were particularly focused on climate change. Although 88.6% agreed that the current situation was a “crisis,” only 26.3% of the general population said “drastic measures 특단의 대책 are necessary.” But among women in their 20s, 43.1% called for drastic measures, as did 39.2% of women in their 30s.
The Korean public is surprisingly willing to bear the cost of addressing climate change: 61.2% said they would welcome a renewable power generation facility in their neighborhood even if it lowered their property value, and 48.4% said they could tolerate their electricity bill doubling in the next ten years.
The public saw large corporations (81.8%) as the most responsible party within South Korea for climate change, and strongly favored (84.5%) tax breaks for corporations that take aggressive measures to respond to climate change.
