Climate change: 94% of students in Edinburgh claim not enough is being done to tackle climate change ahead of G7 summit this week

A survey has found that 94% of students studying in Edinburgh believe that not enough is being done to tackle climate change ahead of the G7 Summit taking place this weekend.

The findings – from research conducted amongst 1,013 16-25-year-old students in the UK in May by Panelbase – also showed that most student in Scotland’s Capital claimed that the UK Government (65%) and businesses (59%) are most at fault for the state of the planet.

The vast majority agreed that the UK Government (87%) should be doing more to tackle climate change.

61% stated that a political party’s stance on sustainability would impact how they vote.

In the study, conducted by The Student Housing Company (TSHC), Edinburgh’s students cited climate change as the biggest societal issue the world is facing (87%), followed by issues related to diversity and inclusion (49%), the wealth divide (45%), and Coronavirus (43%).

Over two thirds (69%) in Edinburgh say they would consider having fewer children if it made a difference and 53% would be willing to pay more for a product if it was better for the environment than a competitor’s.

Richard Brenner, operations director for Europe at Global Student Accommodation (GSA) who commissioned the study said: “It’s abundantly clear just how much this generation cares and we’re committed to using this research as a steppingstone to improving the environmental practices across our business.

"We all have a duty to do more.”

Nationwide figures from the study revealed around two thirds of students recycle (68%) and actively reduce their food waste (63%), while around a third reduce water use (38%), meat consumption (36%) and refuse to purchase fast fashion (32%).

Only 24% of students across the UK claimed they have cut out using plastic, despite 60% admitting that using plastic usage is the most damaging consumer behaviour for the environment.

23% of students claim they make subtle changes to how they act in everyday life or take direct action to support environmental or sustainability causes to deal with the climate crisis.

However, as the damaging impacts of people’s digital footprint becomes clearer, the majority (55%) of students in the UK said they are unaware of how big an impact their digital footprint has on the environment.

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