India online very green
By Bala Shah

In 100 countries around the world, Nielsen provides clients a comprehensive understanding of what consumers watch and buy.

Nielsen, based on a survey of 25,000 Internet respondents in 51 countries, has found that in the online community, Indians are more concerned about Climate Change than Americans.

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The bi-annual report shows that while 69 percent of global online consumers say they are concerned about climate change / global warming (up from 66 percent in 2009, but down from 72 percent in 2007), concern for other environmental issues are increasingly taking a higher priority in the minds of consumers. Three out of four global consumers rated air pollution (77%) and water pollution (75%) as top concerns, both increasing six percentage points compared to 2009. The most rapidly growing area of concern among 73 percent of global online consumers surrounds the issues of pesticides, packaging waste and water shortages, with reported concern increasing 16, 14 and 13 percentage points, respectively over the last two years.

With their large populations and high CO2 emissions, many consider the United States, China and India instrumental to any potential international climate change agreements. Yet, concern is falling in the U.S., which recorded one of the steepest declines (14%) in concern about climate change/global warming from 2007 to 2011.

Today, less than half of Americans (48%) say they are concerned about climate change, which contrasts sharply with reported concern in Latin America (90%), Middle East/Africa (80%), Asia Pacific (72%), and Europe (68%). Among the 21 percent of Americans who are decidedly not concerned, 63 percent indicated they believe natural variation — and not people — causes climate change / global warming.

In China, concern about climate change / global warming is higher than in the U.S., but dropped 17 percent in the last two years from 77 percent in 2009 to 64 percent in 2011. Meanwhile, concern in India has gradually risen in the past four years, and with 86 percent of Indians currently worried, it remains one of the markets most concerned about climate change in the world.
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