TOKYO–(BUSINESS WIRE)–The Asahi Glass Foundation, chaired by Takuya Shimamura, conducted an online survey of 13,332 people in Japan and a total of 24 other countries, with 6,585 participants between the ages of 18 and 24 and 6,747 participants between the ages of 25 to 69 years old. Its objective was to assess awareness and action regarding environmental issues. The investigation was supervised by Professor Norichika Kanie of Keio University. Its main conclusions were:
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Overall, participants ranked “climate change” as the most pressing environmental issue in the country or region where they reside and expressed concern about abnormal weather conditions. Issue number two was “Society, economy and environment, policies, measures” and issue number three was “Water resources”.
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Participants ranked Japan, the United States and Australia as the top three countries that have made progress in terms of public awareness and action on environmental issues. Reasons given for choosing Japan included “advanced technology” and “cleanliness”.
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The Sustainable Development Goals that participants believe will have the highest level of achievement by 2030 are “No poverty” (1st), “Good health and well-being” (2nd) and “Zero hunger” (3rd). ). The SDGs that participants felt would have the lowest level of achievement were “No poverty” (1st), “Zero hunger” (2nd) and “Quality education” (3rd). Opinions were divided on whether poverty can be eradicated, even among people in the same country, with developed countries giving more pessimistic answers.
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About 30% of participants had not heard of the SDGs. The 18-24 year olds had a slightly higher notoriety than that of the 25-69 year olds.
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When displaying Environmental Crisis Awareness time on a clock, from 12:01 a.m. to 12:00 p.m., participants across all age groups averaged 7:25 a.m., meaning “pretty concerned.” 18-24 year olds were on average slightly lower at 7:11, while 25-69 year olds were at 7:27, meaning they were slightly more worried. The average time given by world environmental experts was two hours in front of the general public, at 9:35 a.m., “extremely worried”. But experts and the general public have expressed a sense of crisis.
