Epson Conducts Climate Survey
With a few days to go before the start of the 2021 United Nations Climate Change Conference (COP 26) in the UK in November, Epson has announced the results of its Climate Reality Barometer. Epson reports that its research discovers a potentially damaging gap between climate reality and people’s understanding of its catastrophic effects. The survey captures global experiences and perceptions of climate change from 15,264 consumers across Asia, Europe, North America and South America, including 1,207 consumers in India.
Timed to help frame discussions at COP 26, the goal of the Epson Climate Reality Barometer is to raise greater public awareness of climate change impacts, influence transformative business decisions, and better inform policy makers. According to the report, when questioned about their views on humanity’s ability to avert a climate crisis within their lifetimes, almost three in four (73.4%) of people surveyed in India as part of the Epson Climate Reality Barometer, state they are “very” or “somewhat” optimistic, while just one in 10 (11.4%) claim to be very or somewhat pessimistic. Epson reports that this significantly outweighs the global trend, with close to half of the respondents worldwide (46%) stating that they are optimistic and 27% expressing pessimism in this regard. Their results showed a worrying climate reality deficit between participants perception of the scale and immediacy of the climate emergency on one hand and the actions to tackle the same on the other. In India 4.1% of respondents do not believe that there is a climate emergency at all, while US tops the list of climate deniers at 11%.
The survey also revealed that globally, only 14% of respondents recognised big businesses as most responsible for tackling the climate emergency, and just 3% small companies (fewer than the 5% of climate change deniers). Epson reports that it is transitioning to 100% renewable electricity and engaging with initiatives such as the RE100 renewable energy project, working to close the resource loop by promoting product refurbishment and reuse and engaging in high impact partnerships like its work with National Geographic to protect permafrost.