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About Sustainable Energy Blog
Sustainable Energy Blog was launched in July 2005, and is Leonardo ENERGY's longest running blog, covering technology, policy, finance, roadmaps, actors, ...
Relevance lost - the rise and fall of opinion surveys
Submitted by Hans De Keulenaer on Wed, 2007-03-07 10:21.
With increasing frequency, the European Commission issues Eurobarometer reports on energy issues, such as the latest 'Attitudes on issues related to EU Energy Policy'. This latest flash Eurobarometer gives a very clear and consistent signal accross the European Union on a number of energy issues.
For example:
- citizens are concerned about climate change
- they want a minimum percentage for the share of renewable energy
- governments should subsidise investments for energy efficiency and development of new technologies
- policy needs to be set at EU-level
- nuclear energy needs to be decreased
- citizens want to be able to choose their supplier for electricity and gas
All these choices have far-reaching implications. Unfortunately, the signal from EU citizens is not always consistent with previous Eurobarometer surveys on energy. A complex subject as energy does not lend itself well to telephone interviews. It gives citizens no chance for reflection, and the sequence & phrasing of questions introduces significant bias.

