According to a Financial Times/Harris Poll conducted online by Harris Interactive, many people in the five largest countries in Europe as well as in the U.S. like the idea of renewable energy, but do not want to pay any more for renewable energy sources.
A majority of adults who have some form of responsibility for paying household energy bills in Great Britain (54%) and Germany (50%), pluralities in Italy (44%), France (42%) and the U.S. (40%), as well as just over one-third of adults responsible for paying household energy bills in Spain (35%), say they would not be willing to pay more for energy if it was from renewable sources.
The poll was conducted among 6,448 adults ages 16 to 64 within France, Germany, Great Britain, Spain and the U.S., and adults ages 18 to 64 in Italy, between Jan. 30 and Feb. 8.
Looking specifically to two sources of energy – nuclear and wind – majorities of adults in these six countries are in favor of one type and mixed on the other. When it comes to the number of wind farms in their country, strong majorities in all six countries (from 79% to 92%) are in favor of seeing a large increase.
Nuclear energy, on the other hand, produces more mixed feelings. A majority of Italians (58%) are in favor of building new nuclear plants in their country. Two-thirds of Spaniards (68%) as well as 64% of Germans and just over half (55%) of adults in Great Britain, however, are all opposed to building new power plants in their respective countries. France and the U.S. are more closely divided. In France, 51% are opposed while in the U.S., 52% favor building new power plants.
