Europeans are increasingly showing their support for the energy and sustainable transformation. Spain is not far behind and this has been confirmed by the latest standard Eurobarometer for spring 2023 of the European Commission, where they assure that 89% of Spaniards agree that massive investment should be made in renewable energies, such as wind energy. or solar, in the coming years. Thus, the country manages to exceed the European average by four percentage points, where just over eight out of ten citizens of the community think about these investments; that is, 85%.
The ‘green’ path is increasingly important for companies in order to meet the objectives set by Brussels for 2030 and 2050, as well as the global milestones with the Paris Agreement and other regulations. But now the pressure is coming from citizens who are becoming more responsible and participating in the energy transition. Although the total share of the EU represented one percentage point less than in the winter Eurobarometer 2022-2023, this year 50% are totally in agreement with making large investments of this type.
The countries that are most committed to this are Malta with 97%, followed by Portugal with 95%, and third place is shared by Denmark and Ireland with 94%. Those who least agree with making these movements, son of Bulgaria (72%); and Estonia with Romania (both with 71%). Even so, the three exceed 50% of citizens who believe in the importance of renewables and the transition. The commitment adopted by citizens is such that more than 3 quarters of Europeans have decided to take matters into their own hands and reduce their own energy consumption or plan to do so in the near future (78%).
In this case Malta also takes the lead, followed by the Netherlands, Croatia and Denmark. Spain is in tenth place among Europeans with 81% of citizens taking their own measures to reduce energy consumption. Some of the reasons why they decide to launch themselves to reduce it is because they know that they can limit the price of what they pay for energy consumption in the long term (79%), while almost 20% disagree and for the same reason, it does not take any type of action. There are others who claim that member states can jointly buy energy to obtain better prices.
On the other hand, sustainability and renewables can also be measured and implemented in buildings and others beyond companies. Funds have even been launching for some time to invest in ‘green’ homes because in the long term they will generate greater profitability for them. For this same reason, 82% of EU citizens believe that the energy efficiency of buildings must be increased, as well as that of transport and other goods Eyenes Yeenes Eyenes Eyenes Eyenes Eyenes E services that make them dependent on other countries for energy of the community.
REPowerEU and energy dependency
The Eurobarometer has also reflected other types of information regarding energy consumption. A little over a year ago, when the war between Russia and Ukraine began, the European Commission took measures not only to try to stop the invasion and help Ukraine, but also to put aside the EU’s energy dependence on the country led by Vladimir Putin. For this, the ‘REPowerEU’ plan was created, which seeks to step on the accelerator in the recovery of energy sovereignty and has become one of the most outstanding objectives of the EC.
Along these lines, when EU citizens have been asked if they agree with Brussels reducing its dependence on Russian energy sources “as soon as possible”, 80% of citizens think so. In Spain, specifically, 84% totally agree, while 8% totally disagree and only 8% don’t know. The country that most believes that it is necessary to become independent from Russia in these surroundings is Sweden (96%), followed by Portugal (95%) and the Netherlands with 94%. Those who least agree with this sustained are Bulgaria with 62% and Slovakia with 57%.
