HKU POP SITE today releases latest survey findings of WorldPublicOpinion.org – on people's opinions towards the expectation of their respective governments in addressing the problem of energy and the development of alternative energyBack

WouldPublicOpinion.org (or WPO) interviewed 20,790 people in 24 regions worldwide between July 15 and November 4. The survey finds that large majorities in every nation are in strong support for the government requiring utilities to use more alternative energy, such as wind and solar, and requiring businesses to use energy more efficiently, even if these steps increase the costs of energy and other products. Steven Kull, Director of WPO comments, "It is quite remarkable that there is such unanimity around the world that government should address the problem of energy by emphasizing alternative energy sources and greater efficiency. Equally remarkable is how little the governments around the world are following the public's lead." Invited commentator from Hong Kong Prof Johnny Yui-Siu Lau, lecturer at Baptist University in Hong Kong and Macau University observes, "The education on environmental protection and energy policies has long been neglected in Hong Kong, although certain environmental organizations have been organizing activities to promote the importance of environmental protection work. Yet, the government and utilities companies have not been promoting widely. They put emphasis on the traditional energy sources only as it does not require new research and investment, and developing alternative energy soruces may implicate a decrease in their profit." Coordinator of MacauPublicOpinion Dr Angus Weng-Hin Cheong observes, "Even though more Macau people express the above opinions, the average figures are less than the Greater China Region averages in various indicators. This reveals that Macau people may need to raise their awareness in energy and environmental protection." The margins of error of WPO surveys conducted around the world are controlled to the range of +/-2 to 4 percentage points.

Points to note:

* The Chinese website of "WorldPublicOpinion.org" is located at http://wpo.hkpop.hk and its English website is located at http://worldpublicopinion.org.
* Since there are sampling errors in the survey, the figures cannot be too accurate. When quoting percentages, journalists should refrain from reporting decimal places.

POP today releases on schedule via the "HKU POP SITE" (http://hkupop.pori.hk) and "World Opinion Platform" (http://wpo.hkpop.hk) the latest figures of WouldPublicOpinion.org, which reflect people's opinions towards the expectation of their respective governments in addressing the problem of energy and the development of alternative energy. Herewith the contact information for the latest survey:

Date of survey	Overall sample size	Margin of error
Varies on 15/7-4/11/2008	20,790	Less than +/-4% in each region

Herewith the results of people in Greater China Region (GCR) and countries well-known to Hong Kong people. The theme is whether the government should emphasize the following ways of dealing with the problem of energy more, less, or the same as now. For other figures and contact information, please refer to "World Opinion Platform": *

Date of survey	15/7-4/11/2008
Sample base	Ranges from 600-2,223
Should the government emphasize installing solar or wind energy systems more, less, or the same as now?	Emphasize more	Emphasize less	Same as now	DK/NS	Total
Greater China Region average	72%	8%	12%	8%	100%
Hong Kong	59%	16%	18%	8%	100%
Macau	64%	9%	15%	12%	100%
Mainland	84%	4%	4%	8%	100%
Taiwan	82%	2%	10%	5%	100%
United States of America	87%	5%	6%	3%	100%
Britain	81%	6%	10%	4%	100%
France	88%	3%	9%	0%	100%
Thailand	75%	7%	5%	13%	100%
Germany	82%	5%	12%	2%	100%
South Korea	89%	2%	9%	1%	100%
World average	76%	8%	8%	8%	100%
Should the government emphasize modifying buildings to make them more energy efficient more, less, or the same as now?	Emphasize more	Emphasize less	Same as now	DK/NS	Total
Greater China Region average	65%	9%	15%	11%	100%
Hong Kong	51%	16%	23%	11%	100%
Macau	56%	10%	18%	15%	100%
Mainland	80%	6%	4%	10%	100%
Taiwan	73%	4%	16%	8%	100%
United States of America	83%	4%	11%	2%	100%
Britain	89%	2%	8%	2%	100%
France	89%	2%	9%	1%	100%
Thailand	73%	8%	6%	13%	100%
Germany	85%	6%	7%	1%	100%
South Korea	85%	3%	10%	2%	100%
World average	72%	11%	10%	8%	100%
Should the government emphasize building coal or oil-fired power plants more, less, or the same as now?	Emphasize more	Emphasize less	Same as now	DK/NS	Total
Greater China Region average	31%	32%	24%	12%	100%
Hong Kong	23%	30%	34%	12%	100%
Macau	30%	28%	25%	16%	100%
Mainland	42%	36%	11%	11%	100%
Taiwan	29%	34%	27%	10%	100%
United States of America	25%	49%	22%	4%	100%
Britain	28%	40%	24%	8%	100%
France	28%	46%	21%	4%	100%
Thailand	41%	19%	13%	28%	100%
Germany	9%	62%	27%	2%	100%
South Korea	31%	33%	32%	4%	100%
World average	38%	33%	18%	11%	100%
Should the government emphasize building nuclear energy power plants more, less, or the same as now?	Emphasize more	Emphasize less	Same as now	DK/NS	Total
Greater China Region average	37%	28%	21%	14%	100%
Hong Kong	22%	35%	32%	11%	100%
Macau	23%	44%	17%	15%	100%
Mainland	63%	10%	6%	20%	100%
Taiwan	40%	21%	30%	9%	100%
United States of America	42%	31%	24%	3%	100%
Britain	41%	29%	22%	8%	100%
France	26%	41%	32%	1%	100%
Thailand	22%	31%	10%	37%	100%
Germany	14%	63%	22%	1%	100%
South Korea	55%	13%	28%	5%	100%
World average	39%	30%	18%	13%	100%

*Except Hong Kong, Macau, Mainland and Taiwan, the other regions are those best known to Hong Kong people. According to the survey conducted by POP on May 2-6, 2008, the 10 regions best known to Hong Kong people are the United States, United Kingdom, Japan, France, Australia, Thailand, Singapore, Canada, Germany and South Korea. Among these regions, the United States, United Kingdom, France, Thailand, Germany and South Korea participated in this current survey. For details of survey on people's best known regions, please refer to the press release on May 20, 2008 at the "HKU POP SITE". The figures for Greater China Region are calculated based on the survey results of Hong Kong, Macau, Mainland and Taiwan. While different from the calculation of WPO, the findings of Hong Kong, Macau and Taiwan are included in figures for world average.

Herewith the results of people in GCR and countries well-known to Hong Kong people. The theme is the favor or opposition of the government adopting the energy policy. For other figures and contact information, please refer to "World Opinion Platform": *

Date of survey	15/7-4/11/2008
Sample base	Ranges from 600-2,223
Should government require utilities to use more alternative energy, even if this increases the cost of energy in the short run?	Favor	Oppose	NK/HS	Total
Greater China Region average	79%	12%	9%	100%
Hong Kong	78%	15%	7%	100%
Macau	76%	13%	11%	100%
Mainland	75%	11%	14%	100%
Taiwan	88%	9%	3%	100%
United States of America	66%	28%	6%	100%
Britain	75%	19%	6%	100%
France	88%	10%	3%	100%
Thailand	73%	9%	17%	100%
Germany	62%	36%	2%	100%
South Korea	96%	4%	1%	100%
World average	71%	19%	11%	100%
Should the government require businesses to use energy more efficiently, even if this might make some products more expensive?	Favor	Oppose	NK/HS	Total
Greater China Region average	72%	17%	11%	100%
Hong Kong	71%	18%	10%	100%
Macau	71%	18%	12%	100%
Mainland	66%	16%	18%	100%
Taiwan	80%	15%	5%	100%
United States of America	61%	34%	5%	100%
Britain	79%	17%	5%	100%
France	72%	25%	3%	100%
Thailand	65%	17%	18%	100%
Germany	57%	40%	3%	100%
South Korea	74%	24%	3%	100%
World average	60%	29%	11%	100%
Should the government have an extra charge for the purchase of models of appliances and cars that are NOT energy efficient?	Favor	Oppose	NK/HS	Total
Greater China Region average	53%	36%	11%	100%
Hong Kong	55%	36%	9%	100%
Macau	53%	35%	12%	100%
Mainland	48%	33%	19%	100%
Taiwan	55%	40%	5%	100%
United States of America	43%	52%	5%	100%
Britain	59%	36%	5%	100%
France	60%	38%	2%	100%
Thailand	19%	64%	17%	100%
Germany	43%	54%	3%	100%
South Korea	53%	43%	4%	100%
World average	49%	39%	13%	100%

*Except Hong Kong, Macau, Mainland and Taiwan, the other regions are those best known to Hong Kong people. According to the survey conducted by POP on May 2-6, 2008, the 10 regions best known to Hong Kong people are the United States, United Kingdom, Japan, France, Australia, Thailand, Singapore, Canada, Germany and South Korea. Among these regions, the United States, United Kingdom, France, Thailand, Germany and South Korea participated in this current survey. For details of survey on people's best known regions, please refer to the press release on May 20, 2008 at the "HKU POP SITE". The figures for Greater China Region are calculated based on the survey results of Hong Kong, Macau, Mainland and Taiwan. While different from the calculation of WPO, the findings of Hong Kong, Macau and Taiwan are included in figures for world average.

Herewith the results of people in GCR and countries well-known to Hong Kong people. The theme is people's opinion towards making a major shift to alternative energy source, such as wind and solar. For other figures and contact information, please refer to "World Opinion Platform": *

Date of survey	15/7-4/11/2008
Sample base	Ranges from 600-2,223
Which view is closer to yours?	A. This would cost so much money that it would hurt the economy	B. With the rising cost of energy, it would save money in the long run	DK/NS	Total
Greater China Region average	9%	81%	11%	100%
Hong Kong	10%	83%	7%	100%
Macau	9%	79%	12%	100%
Mainland	8%	78%	14%	100%
Taiwan	7%	84%	9%	100%
United States of America	18%	79%	3%	100%
Britain	13%	79%	8%	100%
France	12%	83%	5%	100%
Thailand	13%	59%	28%	100%
Germany	31%	65%	4%	100%
South Korea	12%	86%	2%	100%
World average	19%	68%	13%	100%

Results of latest survey showed that the opinions of people in GCR on whether the government should prioritize installing wind or solar energy system, modifying buildings to make them more energy efficient, building coal or oil-fired plants, or building nuclear energy power plants are divided. Regarding installing wind or solar energy system, percentages of people in the four regions who thought the government sould emphasize it more range from 59% to 84%. As for modifying buildings to make them more energy efficient, percentage of people in the four regions thought the government should emphasize it more range from 51% to 80%. While percentages for people in the four regions who thought the government should emphasize more on building coal or oil-fired plants range from 23% to 42%, those for building nuclear power plants range from 22% to 63%.

Regarding energy policies, the GCR average expectation on their governments are higher than the world average. Percentages of people who favored their respective government requiring utilities to use more alternative energy in the four GCR regions range from 75% to 88%, while the GCR average is 8 percentage points higher than the world average. As for requiring businesses to use energy more efficiently, people of GCR regions who favored this range from 66% to 80%, while the GCR average is 12 percentage points higher than the world average. With regards having an extra charge for the purchase of models of appliances and cars that are not energy efficient, people of GCR regions favoring this range from 48% to 55%, and the GCR average is 4 percentage points higher than the world average.

On the other hand, people in the GCR generally believe that with the rising cost of energy, making a major shift to alternative energy sources would save money in the long run. The favoring percentages range from 78% to 84%, while the GCR average is 13 percentage points higher than the world average.

Invited commentator from Hong Kong Prof Johnny Yui-Siu Lau, lecturer at Baptist University in Hong Kong and Macau University (email address: [email protected]) analyzes the survey results as follows:

The three main findings of the survey conducted in Hong Kong are as follows:

(1) Lack of environmental protection awareness in Hong Kong
Only 59% Hong Kong people think that greater emphasis should be given to installing alternative energy systems such as wind and solar, which the percentage is lower than that of Macau (64%), Taiwan (82%), and even Mainland China (84%), and is far lower than the world average (76%).

Besides, only 51% Hong Kong people support greater emphasis on "modifying buildings to make them more energy efficient", while this percentage is lower than that of Macau (56%), Taiwan (73%) and Mainland China (80%). When compared to the world average (72%), Hong Kong people again show lower perception on this issue than people in other regions polled.

As for other items polled, such as building new nuclear power plants, the support rate in Hong Kong is lower than that of Macau, Taiwan and Mainland China. (Please refer to the research report for details)

This indicates that the education on environmental protection and energy policies has long been neglected in Hong Kong, although certain environmental organizations (e.g. Friends of the Earth, Green peace, etc.) have been organizing activities to promote the importance of environmental protection work. Yet, the government and utilities companies have not been promoting widely. They put emphasis on the traditional energy sources only as it does not require new research and investment, and developing alternative energy soruces may implicate a decrease in their profit.

(2) People's thinking has been led by the generalised realism in Hong Kong, which slows down the development of environmental protection and energy saving movement.

Generally speaking, the environmental protection in Mainland China is worse than that in Hong Kong, education on both the environmental protection and energy saving are not the major work in Mainland China. However, the respondents in Mainland China have done better in many items in the survey than respondents in Hong Kong. Despite the poor work on environmental protection and energy saving of the government in Mainland China, their citizens are aware of the importance in environmental protection and energy saving. For example, majority of people from Mainland China favor greater emphasis on building nuclear power plants while only 22% do so, which is far lower than the world average (39%). It is because Hong Kong people have long been facing many unchangeable facts, even though they are aware of the continuous development of nuclear power facilities, Hong Kong SAR government did not and cannot afford to develop such facilities. It can only purchase service from Daya Bay Nuclear Power Station, which in turn reduces its demand in developing nuclear power facilities.

(3) Energy policies from the Hong Kong SAR government are still in demand

Due to the relatively high expense on the energy sources in Hong Kong, Hong Kong people have demand from the government. In the survey, 78% of respondents in Hong Kong favor the shifting to alternative energy sources, such as solar and wind, even if it increases the costs in the short run. This percentage is similar to that of Macau (76%) and Mainland China (75%), while lower than that of Taiwan (88%).

Meanwhile, 71% respondents in Hong Kong think that businesses should use energy more efficiently, even if it means the price of the products will increase. This support rate is higher than that of world average (60%) as well as Mainland China (66%).

Besides, 83% express their support in a major shift to alternative energy sources, even if it means a higher cost, as they believe this will save money in the long run. This support rate is even higher than that of Mainland China and Macau, as well as the world average (68%).

These show that Hong Kong people generally hope the government will have foresight and do a better job. Otherwise, the suffering of great spending on energy still persists.

Dr Angus Weng-Hin Cheong, Assistant Professor of Department of Communication of University of Macau and Research Coordinator of MacauPublicOpinion (email address: [email protected]) analyze the survey results as follows:

On the issues of global energy crisis and environmental demage, peoples from all over the world express similar demands. Most expect their government could emphasize more on installing green energy system such as solar and wind power, whereas less people agree that their government should emphasize more on coal, oil-fired or nuclear power plants. Moreover, more people believe that even if it increases the cost of energy in the short run, the use of renewable energy source would save money in the long run, so governments should require utilities and businesses to implement energy conservation policy. This reflects that people have high expectations on their government as well as public utilities and businesses regarding the use of energy and environmental protection. Meanwhile, even though more Macau people express the above opinions, the average figures are less than the Greater China Region averages in various indicators. This reveals that Macau people may need to raise their awareness in energy and environmental protection. Related authorities, civil groups and schools must catch up immediately and strategically increase promotion and education. Macau may not overcome the problem of energy by itself, but it must get prepared soon to cope with future challenges.

WorldPublicOpinion.org comments, "A new poll of 21 nations finds very strong support for the government requiring utilities to use more alternative energy, such as wind and solar, and requiring businesses to use energy more efficiently, even if these steps increase the costs of energy and other products. Fewer than half of the nations polled favor putting more emphasis on nuclear energy or on coal or oil. In all nations most people reject the view that shifting to alternative energy sources would hurt the economy, believing instead that it would save money in the long run. "It is quite remarkable that there is such unanimity around the world that government should address the problem of energy by emphasizing alternative energy sources and greater efficiency," comments Steven Kull, director of WorldPublicOpinion.org. "Equally remarkable is how little the governments around the world are following the public's lead". (For details please go to the website of WPO at http://www.worldpublicopinion.org.)

WorldPublicOpinion.org (WPO) was initiated and managed by the Program on International Policy Attitudes at the University of Maryland, USA. At present WPO consists of research centers from over 20 countries or regions including Hong Kong, Macau, Mainland and Taiwan (together called Greater China Region).

Apart from conducting the Hong Kong part of WPO survey, the Public Opinion Programme (POP) at the University of Hong Kong is also responsible for designing and maintaining the Chinese homepage of the WPO at http://wpo.hkpop.hk, which can be accessed via the HKU POP Site at http://hkupop.pori.hk. Besides, POP is also responsible for coordinating the polls in the Greater China Region, and will follow the rhythm of the WorldPublicOpinion.org (WPO) to globally release the Chinese versions of WPO's press releases regularly. We welcome questions for follow-up purpose, please email them to us at [email protected].