Public Attitudes toward Renewable Energy in Croatia
Abstract
:1. Introduction
2. Renewable Energy—EU and Croatian Context
2.1. EU and Croatian Legal and Policy Context
2.2. Renewable Energy Sector in Croatia in 2009–2019
3. Methods
4. Results
5. Conclusions
Author Contributions
Funding
Data Availability Statement
Conflicts of Interest
Appendix A
Variable | Question/Statement | Values in the Survey |
---|---|---|
Gender | Gender | 1—Female, 2—Male |
Age | Age | Open question |
Education | Highest education level | 1—Secondary education or lower, 2—Tertiary education, 3—Post-graduate education |
County | County of residence | 1—Bjelovar-Bilogora County, 2—Brod-Posavina County, 3—Dubrovnik-Neretva County, 4—Istria County, 5—Karlovac County, 6—Koprivnica-Križevci County, 7—Krapinska-Zagorje County, 8—Lika-Senj County, 9—Međimurje County, 10—Osijek-Baranja County, 11—Požega-Slavonia County, 12—Primorje-Gorski Kotar County, 13—Sisak-Moslavina County, 14—Split-Dalmatia County, 15—Šibenik-Knin County, 16—Varaždin County, 17—Virovitica-Podravina County, 18—Vukovar-Srijem County, 19—Zadar County, 20—Zagreb County, 21—City of Zagreb |
Employment | Employment status | 1—Employed, 2—Student, 3—Other (retired, unemployed) |
Type of residence facility | Please indicate the type of residence facility in which are you currently living | 1—House, 2—Apartment in the house, 3—Multi-family building |
Knowledge about renewable energy sources (RES) | Please estimate the level of your knowledge about RES: wind power | 1—Nothing at all, 2—Poor, 3—Average, 4—Good, 5—Excellent |
Please estimate the level of your knowledge about RES: solar power | ||
Please estimate the level of your knowledge about RES: hydropower | ||
Please estimate the level of your knowledge about RES: geothermal energy | ||
Please estimate the level of your knowledge about RES: biomass | ||
Use of RES | Do you use any RES in your household | 1—Yes, 2—No |
Combating climate change | Are you taking measures and actions to mitigate/combat climate change? | 1—Yes, 2—No |
Impacts of RES | Please indicate to what extent do you agree with the following statement: Increased use of RES has a positive impact on economic development | 1—Strongly disagree, 2—Disagree, 3—Neutral, 4—Agree, 5—Strongly agree |
Please indicate to what extent you agree with the following statement: Increased use of RES leads to increased employment | ||
Please indicate to what extent you agree with the following statement: Increased use of RES has the effect of reducing air/water pollution | ||
Please indicate to what extent you agree with the following statement: Increased use of RES is reducing Croatia’s dependence on energy imports | ||
Please indicate to what extent you agree with the following statement: Increasing the use of RES affects the increase in energy costs in the household | ||
Please indicate to what extent you agree with the following statement: Increased use of RES has the effect of mitigating climate change | ||
Please indicate to what extent you agree with the following statement: Increased use of RES has a positive effect on health | ||
Please indicate to what extent you agree with the following statement: The economic benefits of introducing RES in households are great | ||
Please indicate to what extent you agree with the following statement: The economic benefits of introducing RES for the municipality/city in which I live are great | ||
Willingness to pay | How much extra would you be willing to pay to buy electricity from renewable sources? | 1—EUR 0, 2—from EUR 0.1 to 6.6, 3—from EUR 6.7 to 13.3, 4—more than EUR 13.3.Amounts are recalculated from HRK to EUR according to the Croatian National Bank exchange rate for 2020: 1 EUR = 7.53308 HRK |
Willingness to purchase green energy from local supplier | If your local electricity supplier offered clean, renewable energy, would you buy it? | 1—Yes, 2—No |
Willingness to install renewable energy technology with subsidized costs | If there was a possibility of subsidizing RES, would you decide to install a solar panel or other renewable energy sources in the yard or on the roof of the house or building in which you live? | 1—Yes, 2—No |
Trust in local government | Please indicate to what extent you agree with each of the following statements: I have confidence that the municipality/city in which I live takes measures for the benefit of citizens in the field of energy and climate policy | 1—Strongly disagree, 2—Disagree, 3—Neutral, 4—Agree, 5—Strongly agree |
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Distribution of Sample, Percent | ||
---|---|---|
Region | Adriatic Croatia | 28.6 |
Continental Croatia | 46.7 | |
City of Zagreb | 24.7 | |
Gender | Female | 67.3 |
Male | 32.7 | |
Age | 18–29 | 18.1 |
30–39 | 19.8 | |
40–49 | 25.4 | |
50–59 | 24.4 | |
60+ | 12.3 | |
Education | Secondary education or lower | 13.7 |
Tertiary education | 66.6 | |
Post-graduate education | 14.1 | |
Employment status | Employed | 80.3 |
Student | 11.4 | |
Other | 5.9 | |
Type of residence facility | Multi-family building | 38.0 |
House | 62.0 |
Nothing at All | Poor | Average | Good | Excellent | |
---|---|---|---|---|---|
Wind power | 2.8 | 12.3 | 41.9 | 32.2 | 10.8 |
Solar power | 1.1 | 7.8 | 34.5 | 41.4 | 15.3 |
Hydropower | 4.1 | 20.4 | 32.5 | 31.5 | 11.5 |
Geothermal energy | 11.2 | 35.6 | 27.4 | 19.4 | 8.3 |
Biomass | 15.4 | 32.0 | 26.8 | 17.5 | 8.2 |
Mean | Std. Deviation | |
---|---|---|
Economic growth | 4.51 | 1.05 |
Job creation | 3.75 | 1.29 |
Value of reduced air and water pollution | 4.67 | 0.95 |
Reducing the dependence on energy imports | 4.61 | 1.04 |
Reducing household energy expenses | 2.36 | 1.62 |
Fighting against climate change | 4.67 | 0.97 |
Health benefits | 4.61 | 0.94 |
Indicator | Category | Willing to Pay, % | Unwilling to Pay, % | Pearson Chi-Squared Test/t-Test | p-Value |
---|---|---|---|---|---|
Fighting against climate change | Yes | 84.3 | 15.7 | 5.540 | 0.000 |
No | 59.0 | 41.0 | |||
Region | Adriatic Croatia | 77.5 | 22.5 | 6.062 | 0.048 |
Continental Croatia | 83.2 | 16.8 | |||
City of Zagreb | 71.0 | 29.0 | |||
Benefits for climate change | No benefits | 20.0 | 80.0 | 46.976 | 0.000 |
Neutral | 64.5 | 35.5 | |||
Benefits | 82.4 | 17.6 | |||
Benefits for households | No benefits | 22.6 | 77.4 | 65.843 | 0.000 |
Neutral | 75.5 | 24.5 | |||
Benefits | 85.4 | 14.6 | |||
Benefits for local unit | No benefits | 29.2 | 70.8 | 43.262 | 0.000 |
Neutral | 71.0 | 29.0 | |||
Benefits | 84.2 | 15.8 | |||
Age | 18–29 | 87.1 | 12.9 | 5.167 | 0.075 |
30–64 | 75.9 | 24.1 | |||
65+ | 86.4 | 13.6 | |||
Gender | Female | 83.5 | 16.5 | 3.673 | 0.000 |
Male | 68.1 | 31.9 | |||
Willingness to purchase green energy from local supplier | Yes | 84.0 | 26.0 | 8.300 | 0.000 |
No | 35.4 | 64.6 | |||
Willingness to install renewable energy technology with subsidized costs | Yes | 79.5 | 20.5 | 2.619 | 0.009 |
No | 47.1 | 52.9 |
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Slijepčević, S.; Kordej-De Villa, Ž. Public Attitudes toward Renewable Energy in Croatia. Energies 2021, 14, 8111. https://doi.org/10.3390/en14238111
Slijepčević S, Kordej-De Villa Ž. Public Attitudes toward Renewable Energy in Croatia. Energies. 2021; 14(23):8111. https://doi.org/10.3390/en14238111
Chicago/Turabian StyleSlijepčević, Sunčana, and Željka Kordej-De Villa. 2021. "Public Attitudes toward Renewable Energy in Croatia" Energies 14, no. 23: 8111. https://doi.org/10.3390/en14238111