Climate change no longer biggest environmental concern

Air quality and water quality are more pressing climate change issues that global warming, according to new research conducted by Nielsen.

In the organisation's Sustainable Efforts & Environmental Concerns Around the World Survey, which involved polling 25,000 online consumers in 51 countries, packaging waste and pesticide use were also more pressing concerns than climate change.

Some 69 per cent of those polled said they were concerned about climate change - an increase on the number worried about the issue in 2009.

However, air quality was a concern for 77 per cent, water quality for 75 per cent and a similar amount were worried about pesticide use.

Dr Maxwell Boykoff, research associate at the University of Oxford's Environmental Change Institute, said: "In the face of other pressing concerns, a public 'caring capacity' for climate change has been tested.

"Without continued attention paid to global warming/climate change in the media, such concerns may have faded from the collective public conscience."

Recently, the Air Quality Index for all major European cities was published, showing that most cities have low levels of pollution.

Posted by Joseph Hutton