Cost of living main barrier to retrofitting and other sustainable changes — survey

Despite the Government's ambitious targets around retrofitting, the number of people prepared to finance it themselves remains low, the survey showed.

Nearly half of Irish people feel they have now been personally affected by climate change, but measures such as retrofitting homes are still out of reach for the vast majority.

AIB's sixth Sustainability Survey of 1,000 adults found 45% of people have felt the impact of climate change in their lives, a rise of eight percentage points since 2020.

AIB attributed the spike to warming and significant rainfall in the past year to the rise.

Met Éireann this week warned storm surges and flooding that devastated Midleton and other areas in Cork are likely to increase in the future as the climate changes, while last year was the warmest ever in Ireland by a "large margin", even though levels of rainfall were much higher than the long-term average.

Cost of living is still the largest barrier for people to make changes that are more sustainable, the survey found.

Nevertheless, such a concern has dwindled significantly in the past year, it found.

Cost as a major barrier was down by 20 percentage points on the previous survey in May 2023, AIB said.

"However, inflation continues to weigh heavy on consumers’ minds, as 52% of adults say the cost of living has made them less interested in sustainability, up 15 percentage points from 37% in the previous wave.

Forty four per cent said a lack of sustainable alternatives was the main barrier, down from 59% in May 2023, while 33% cited a lack of clarity, understanding or information, down from 35%," it said.

Despite the Government's ambitious targets around retrofitting, the number of people prepared to finance it themselves remains low, the survey showed.

Doubts have been cast around Ireland achieving its retrofitting targets of 500,000 B2 Building Energy Rating (BER) home upgrades by 2030. A white paper from the Institute of International and European Affairs in June predicted "retrofitting half a million homes to a building energy rating B2 BER by 2030 in Ireland will require a wartime effort".

According to AIB's survey, "a small minority of consumers are interested in taking out home improvement loans themselves to improve the energy efficiency of their homes, up to 10% from 8% in the previous wave".

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The percentage of respondents who cite scientists and academics as having the most influence on their attitudes and behaviour when it comes to sustainability rose to 40% from 30% in June 2020, AIB said.