Tackling climate change is either as important or more important than strengthening national defences – that’s the view of nearly 80% of the world’s consumers according to a survey from HSBC.

The HSBC Climate Confidence Monitor 2009 questioned people from Australia, Brazil, Canada, China, France, Germany, Hong Kong, India, Malaysia, Mexico, the UK and the USA to gauge their attitudes and behaviour regarding climate change.

The results show that overall, 37 per cent believe that strengthening national defences should be a lower priority than dealing with climate change, while 41 per cent think they are equally important and only 22% believe national defences should take precedence over climate change measures.

However, a country-by-country analysis of the answers reveals a marked difference in attitudes across the globe.

In both France and Germany, at the hub of the European Union, 63 per cent of consumers prioritize tackling climate change over strengthening defences, with only eight per cent in France and seven per cent in Germany believing that defences are more important.

But in the USA it’s a different story, with 45 per cent prioritizing their nation’s defences over dealing with global warming and only 17 per cent seeing climate change as the more important issue. India is the only nation placing more importance over national defences than the US, with just 15% who believe tackling climate change should take priority.

China is another country generally placing more importance on national defensive strength than climate change, with 51 per cent seeing the issues as equal, and 31 per cent believing that defences are a higher priority.

In the UK, as many as 70 per cent of consumers believe that national defences are a lower priority (31 per cent) or about equal in priority (39 per cent) to tackling climate change.

Other nations with a large proporation of consumers who believe global warming is a more important issue than strengthening national defences include Mexico (50 per cent), Hong Kong (47 per cent), Brazil (45 per cent) and Canada.

Despite this, the HSBC Climate Confidence Monitor 2009 shows an overall drop in levels of concern for climate change – falling eight per cent globally among consumers in the last year and 12 per cent in developing countries since 2007.

The report cites the economic downturn as a likely reason behind the drop in concern levels, and points out that even among those who strongly disagree that climate change is one of the biggest issues they worry about today, more than half are active in undertaking a number of low-carbon  choices that reduce their carbon footprint.

For more information, see http://www.hsbc.com/1/2/climateconfidencemonitor