Individual Determinants of Climate Change Scepticism in the Czech Republic

This article focuses on the issue of climate change scepticism among the inhabitants of the Czech Republic and pursues two objectives: to compare climate change scepticism of Czech citizens with citizens of other European countries and to examine the relationship between individual characteristics of Czech citizens and their opinion on climate change. For this purpose, the concepts of epistemic scepticism and response scepticism are employed. The data from round 8 of the European Social Survey are analysed to demonstrate the level of Czech climate change scepticism in comparison with other European countries and to examine the association between the individual characteristics of Czech citizens and climate scepticism. The results indicate that Czech citizens are among the most sceptical in Europe. Furthermore, the outcomes from a series of regression models demonstrate that both epistemic scepticism and response scepticism are associated with political trust and personal values. The findings are contrasted to previous research from other European countries and differences are discussed, taking the specific Czech historical, economic and political context into account.