BY ELLALYN DE VERA-RUIZ
Mar 23, 2023 12:36 AM
AT A GLANCE
Ninety-three percent of Filipinos have personally experienced the effects of climate change in the past three years.
Most Filipinos agree that they can do something to reduce climate risk.
A Social Weather Stations (SWS) survey conducted in December 2022 bared that 93 percent of Filipinos have personally experienced the effects of climate change in the past three years.
Of this, 17 percent said they have experienced severe impact of climate change in the past three years, 52 percent said moderate impact, and 24 percent said little impact.
Meanwhile, only six percent did not experience any impact.
According to SWS, the proportion of those who reported personally experiencing the impacts of climate change can be compared to previous surveys on the topic.
“Those personally experiencing the impacts increased by six percentage points from March 2017 and eight points from March 2013. Those who experienced severe impact of climate change decreased by three points but was offset by an increase of 10 points among those who experienced moderate impact,” it pointed out.
Most Filipinos agree they can do something to reduce climate risk
The SWS survey also found 88 percent agreeing (51 percent strongly agree, 37 percent somewhat agree) with the statement: “People like me can do something to reduce climate risk or risks resulting from climate change.”
Meanwhile, 10 percent were undecided and 3 percent disagreed (2 percent somewhat disagree, 1 percent strongly disagree).
“This gives a net agreement score (percentage of those who agree minus percentage of those who disagree) of +85, classified by SWS as ‘very strong’ (+50 and up). This indicates a very strong personal efficacy to do something to reduce climate risk,” SWS said.
When shown two statements that might best describe one’s outlook on humanity’s control of climate change, SWS found that 76 percent of Filipinos think that humanity could do something to stop or slow down climate change if everyone really tried, while 23 percent think climate change is beyond humanity's control.
Only one percent of Filipinos are unsure.
High awareness on climate change
The survey also found that 81 percent were previously aware of climate change, while 19 percent knew of it only at the time of the survey interview, SWS pointed out.
It noted that those who were previously aware of climate change increased by seven percentage points from March 2017 and 15 points from March 2013.
SWS also said that there is a “very high” awareness of selected solutions to reduce the negative effects of climate change.
It tested public awareness of selected solutions to reduce the negative effects of climate change by selecting items from the United Nations Act Now website about tackling the climate crisis.
SWS crafted them into localized questions for the Filipino experience, and added a question about tree planting and forest protection.
“Percentages of those aware of solutions to reduce the negative effects of climate change were very high: 95 percent for planting trees in the right places and protecting forests, 95 percent for saving energy or electricity at home, 93 percent for walking, cycling, or taking public transportation, 91 percent for reducing, reusing, repairing, and recycling, and 86 percent for throwing away less food,” SWS said
“Majorities of those who are aware of each solution reported that their families engage in the solutions to reduce the negative effects of climate change: 88 percent save energy or electricity at home, 81 percent walk, cycle, or take public transportation, 75 percent throw away less food, 74 percent reduce, reuse, repair, and recycle, and 63 percent plant trees in the right places and protect forests,” it added.
The survey found that those aware of each solution who reported that their families might do the solutions are 24 percent for planting trees in the right places and protecting forests, 17 percent for reducing, reusing, repairing, and recycling, 14 percent for throwing away less food, 13 percent for walking, cycling, or taking public transportation, and 7 percent for saving energy or electricity at home.
Meanwhile, those aware of each solution who reported that their families are not engaging in the solutions are 4 percent for saving energy or electricity at home, 6 percent for walking, cycling, or taking public transportation, 8 percent for reducing, reusing, repairing, and recycling, 11 percent for throwing away less food, and 13 percent for planting trees in the right places and protecting forests.
The Fourth Quarter 2022 SWS survey was conducted from Dec. 10 to 14, 2022, using face-to-face interviews of 1,200 adults, 18 years old and above.
The survey items reported here were non-commissioned. It was done on SWS’s own initiative and released as a public service.
