Ecology

In the period from the first half of September to the beginning of November 2022, a block of questions devoted to energy issues was included in the regular research of Our Society. Part of the questions examined citizens' interest in the energy policy of the Czech Republic and also focused on the issue of the so-called European Green Agreement from 2020.

In its Autumn 2022 survey, the Our Society series included a battery of questions on issues of nuclear energy. The survey examined public opinion about whether the proportion of nuclear energy in electricity production should increase or decrease in future, what people think about building a new unit of the Dukovany Nuclear Power Station (DNPS), whether or not they are concerned about the use of nuclear energy in the country, and whether they have confidence in the government’s decisions about the development of nuclear energy. A newly included question also asked whether citizens know how the Czech state manages nuclear waste.

The Public Opinion Research Centre addressed environmental issues as part of its survey carried out between early September and early November 2022. In terms of the state of the environment, respondents rate the environment in their place of residence better (84%) compared to the overall state of the Czech Republic (75%), the best rating since 2002. The activity of municipal authorities (59% of positive answers) and environmental organisations (56% of positive answers) are the best rated in the field of environmental protection. More than four-fifths (84%) of respondents think that doing something for the environment is good, even if it costs time and money.

In its July 2021 survey, the Our Society series included a battery of questions on issues of the energy system, with a detailed focus on nuclear energy and some aspects of handling radioactive waste. The study inquired how well informed about nuclear waste citizens themselves feel, how reliable they consider different sources of information on nuclear safety, how they think spent nuclear fuel and radioactive waste are currently being handled in the country, how today’s society should respond to the problem of radioactive waste, and how they view different issues of building a deep geological repository of radioactive waste.

In its July 2021 survey, the Our Society series included a battery of questions on issues of nuclear energy. The survey examined public opinion about whether the proportion of nuclear energy in electricity production should increase or decrease in future, what people think about building a new unit of the Dukovany Nuclear Power Station (DNPS), whether or not they are concerned about the use of nuclear energy in the country, and whether they have confidence in the government’s decisions about the development of nuclear energy.

In the July survey the Public Opinion Research Centre focused on the issue of energetics. The survey dealt with a question of the future development of electricity consumption in the country, and whether or not it is possible to replace the production of electricity from conventional sources with alternative sources.

In July within the regular research, the Centre for Public Opinion Research focused on the environment. Representatives of the Czech population answered questions on particular environmental phenomena in the sense of their problematic character. As the most serious problems were stated the garbage cumulation (for 65% “very serious" problem) and the ocean pollution (for 60% "very serious" problem).

In July 2021, the Centre for Public Opinion Research asked questions regarding the environment. In the first question, respondents assessed how they think the Czech Republic cares about environmental protection. The second question identified an interest of respondents in information related to environmentally friendly behaviour. The third question gave the respondents space to express a subjective feeling of awareness of environmentally friendly behavior and the fourth question mapped the respondents' own household practices in the context of the environment.

In July CVVM survey was focused on environmental issues. Respondents were asked about how satisfied or dissatisfied they are with the state of environment in the Czech Republic and in their place of residence. Next citizens rated the size of their satisfaction with concrete areas of environment in their residence such as cleanness of air, surrounding nature and surface water. Respondents also evaluated traffic density, level of noise and the quality of drinking water.

We also examined whether people are interested about information about the state of the environment and whether they have sufficient information on the state of the environment.

In its June 2020 survey, the Our Society series included a battery of questions on issues of energy. Within that battery, we focused on a new avenue of development of nuclear energy in the world, namely the so-called small modular reactors.

Only slightly under one-fifth of citizens have ever heard of the technology of socalled small modular reactors.