ESRA 2027 sessions by theme
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Who is greener? Generational differences in European attitudes to climate change and EU green policies |
| Coordinator 1 | Dr Ruxandra Comănaru (European Social Survey HQ (City St George's, University of London)) |
| Coordinator 2 | Professor Wouter Poortinga (Cardiff University) |
| Coordinator 3 | Dr Vytenis Juozas Deimantas (SHARE BERLIN Institute GmbH) |
| Coordinator 4 | Dr Yuliya Kazakova (GGP NIDI ) |
| Coordinator 5 | Dr David Consolazio (EVS University of Milan) |
Session Details
Humanity is placing unprecedented pressure on the planet, driving rapid climate change, biodiversity loss, and pollution. The Make it Green pillar of the NextGenerationEU initiative emphasises sustainability and environmental protection, aiming to reduce the EU’s carbon footprint, promote a transition to low-carbon energy production, and build resilience across Europe. Two Horizon Europe projects are generating critical insights into how Europeans of different age groups and life stages perceive these challenges: Infra4NextGen, informing the NextGenerationEU and youth policy programmes, and SoGreen, focusing on the green transition.
The CRONOS-3 panel, a cross-national, probability-based, input-harmonised panel, collected eight waves of data across eleven European countries (2024–2026): five as part of Infra4NextGen and three as part of SoGreen. The Infra4NextGen waves were designed by bringing together European research infrastructures (European Social Survey, European Values Study, Gender & Generation Programmes, CESSDA) with academic and policy experts, drawing on the ESS Round 8 Climate Change and Energy module to ensure items are relevant, methodologically sound and useful for policy, in line with Infra4NextGen's broader aim of supporting a strong, equal, digital, green and healthy Europe. It was later extended with further waves for SoGreen, which drew on additional infrastructures (SHARE, ESS, GGP, and GUIDE) to examine how generations and socioeconomic groups experience and respond to green transition policies.
This session invites submissions that explore intergenerational differences in attitudes toward climate change and support for EU green policies. Submissions may draw on CRONOS-3 panel, surveys run by the SoGreen consortium partners (SHARE, GGP, GUIDE), or other Infra4NextGen outputs (harmonised data, e-NextGen tool, etc.). The focus should be on using these data sources to investigate how climate change attitudes and green policy support vary across generations, life stages and countries, fostering dialogue on methodological innovationsand policy-relevant insights.
