Eurogas commissioned Savanta ComRes, a leading market research agency, to conduct a poll among 12,000 Europeans across 13 EU Member States to understand citizens’ opinions on home heating in the context of climate change. The role of consumers in decarbonising the heating sector is especially important as the new EU legislative cycle begins.

Understanding how citizens see their role in the battle against climate change and what they are willing to do in this regard helps us gain insight into the best way to approach the challenge – bringing people with us is vital to achieving our objectives. Consumers’ preferences must therefore be considered as the EU strives to become a leader in tackling climate change and the new European Commission is devising a Green Deal for Europe.

The poll looked at how citizens consider their contribution to fighting climate change, how they would like to heat their homes and what would make them change their heating system. It demonstrated that:

• Citizens want to play a role in fighting climate change and when it comes to heating, they want environmental gains, costs savings and user-friendly appliances.
• They also want governments and companies to play their part by offering incentives to change heating systems and providing more information on the options that are available.
• The survey found prevalence of gas as a home heating source today and respondents selected natural gas as the second most popular option for heating homes in future.
• Europeans recognise the potential of all gaseous solutions to decarbonise heat, including biogas (47% on average) and hydrogen (31% on average).

With innovations like power-to-gas, CCS, anaerobic digestors, electrolysers and pyrolysis, the gas sector can help the EU decarbonise the heating sector, responsible for more than a third of CO2 emissions today. This can also be done in a cost effective and publicly acceptable way.

Related links:

Report findings

Factsheet