At the close of 2009, climate change was hotly debated by world leaders during the UN Climate Change Conference in Copenhagen and as we start a new decade, the global challenge will become increasingly urgent.

Our shopper research looked at attitudes to climate change and discovered that almost a third of British shoppers are worried that we will be unable to reverse the impact of climate change, whatever we do.

The research, conducted among 1,091 shoppers in August 2009, found:

• 32% believe climate change is largely solvable with effort from everyone
• 30% believe it is already irreversible
• 19% suspect climate change will not turn out to be too big a problem
• 14% are not convinced that the climate is changing at all

The most optimistic group of shoppers is those aged between 15 and 24, with 39% of them believing climate change can be solved and only 22% believing it is irreversible. The most pessimistic are those aged 25-34, 39% of whom believe climate change is irreversible.

	Shoppers do not yet feel they can make a  difference through their shopping choices

It is easy to polarise the debate about climate change between believers and non-believers, but as our research shows, shoppers tend to split at least three ways between being dismissive, believing it is irreversible, and believing it can be solved. The outcome from Copenhagen will no doubt have an impact on how these attitudes evolve.

Shoppers do not yet feel they can make a sustained difference through their shopping choices.

When asked what they feel they can positively influence, they told us:

• personal health - 57%
• British farmers - 41%
• the local economy - 38%
• the way animals are treated - 38%
• farmers and workers in poorer nations - 26%
• the environment - 23%
• sustainable fishing - 17%
• global warming - 11%

At the moment the environment and climate change do not feature high up in the list of areas that shoppers feel they can influence through their purchase decisions, however, many companies are working to make environmental choices clearer and simpler in the future so there is great potential for change.

Our recent survey of food and grocery suppliers from around the world revealed that:

• 85% of manufacturers have either stepped up their investment in sustainability or kept it the same during the recession
   
• 76% of suppliers think that sustainability will play a greater role in their trading relationships with retailers in the near future

So despite a mixed picture of climate change among shoppers, manufacturers consider sustainability to be extremely important, and we can see through the many innovative examples of retailers and manufacturers working towards making their businesses carbon-efficient and communicating sustainability to their customers, that they too, are committed to saving the planet.

Sustainability is set to be a major feature of the marketplace in the future, and over the coming decade we expect to see many more innovative examples of how businesses in the food and grocery industry are tackling the issue of climate change. It will be interesting to see how shoppers' attitudes change and how this in turn, affects business.
 

More information:

	Shoppers in 2012: Is your business ready for them?
	How will the 2012 shopper behave? This IGD consumer research will help you predict future shopper behaviour, anticipate their needs and review your medium to longer term strategy accordingly.

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Tim Maton is a Senior Consumer Analyst with IGD, with a wealth of experience in providing shopper insight to a broad range of retailers and manufacturers, including many leading players in the food and grocery sector.

Along with Shoppers in 2012, Tim's most recently authored IGD reports include Social Sustainability – The New Competitive Frontier, Private Label vs. Brands - The Shopper Perspective and The Future of Discounters - The Shopper Perspective.