30 Years of Environmental Attitudes and Behaviours. A Longitudinal Study on Environmental Change and National Affluence in European Societies using ISSP Data (1993-2020)

Monitoring social change at the national level is a crucial aspect of international comparative studies. The environmental module of the International Social Survey Program, conducted four times, provides the opportunity to explore long-term changes in pro environmental attitudes and behaviours across a broad range of societies from 1993 to 2022. Based on data from 24 European countries, this study offers a fresh longitudinal perspective. First, we investigate long-term trends in environmental attitudes (willingness to pay, environmental risk perception) and environmentally significant behaviours (recycling and public sphere behaviours) across various European societies. Second, by applying multi-level within-between random effects models (REWB), we test whether changes in national affluence impact pro environmental attitudes and behaviours, thereby evaluating the affluence thesis for Europe from a longitudinal perspective. Our main findings indicate that since 2010, environmental attitudes and behaviours have been on an upward trend. This suggests an increased awareness of the topic of climate change in Europe and a possible recovery from the negative impacts of the global economic crisis in 2008. Additionally, we can link the affluence thesis to several other dimensions of environmental attitudes and behaviours, contributing to a critical examination of this hypothesis.