Public perceptions of the concept of green growth: application in Athens, Greece, during a period of economic crisis.

Abstract

The global world’s financial crisis of 2008–2009 caused a global recession that greatly affected the economy of Greece. Since then, Greece faces a severe financial crisis and governments announced, among other measures to tackle this crisis, the implementation of green growth strategies. The aim of this study is the investigation of public’s perceptions of green growth strategies that have been implemented so far, the investigation of the effect of the socioeconomic characteristics on these perceptions and the identification of patterns of attitudes toward the concept of green growth. For this purpose, a questionnaire was constructed and addressed to 500 inhabitants of Athens. The majority of the respondents believe that economic growth can be enhanced by green growth. On the other hand, most of the respondents, mainly younger and more educated people, express a strong prejudice for its adoption by enterprises and its implementation by the state. Overall, results reveal that despite the announcements of the political parties concerning green growth policy, the majority of the respondents accepts and applauds green growth as a theoretical concept rather than counting its benefits as an already implemented policy. These findings consist an important assessment tool for policy makers that can be used to redesign policies in order to achieve the goals of green growth and to meet the real needs of the citizens in a period of economic crisis.