Perhaps unlike the Slovak Government, the country's inhabitants believe that the country should cut its energy dependency through a more widespread use of renewable sources of energy, energy savings as well as by boosting its energy efficiency, a public-opinion survey by IPSOS for Greenpeace Slovakia has shown.
Greenpeace sought opinions from people in the Visegrad Four grouping, which besides Slovakia also includes the Czech Republic, Poland and Hungary. According to Greenpeace Slovakia spokesperson Lucia Szabová, the results found in Slovakia are not too different from those found in the other three countries. Whereas the governments of the four countries tend to be sceptical towards more pronounced development of renewable sources of energy, “citizens of V4 countries support such growth and aren't opposed to joint binding targets at the Europe-wide level”, said Greenpeace Slovakia expert Pavol Široký. The poll, which was carried out in late May and early June, canvassed views from 2,500 people living in V4 countries. A total of 80 percent of those asked are convinced that growth in renewable sources of energy would translate into a drop in dependency on energy imports from outside the European Union. As far as Slovakia alone goes, the ratio was nearly 75 percent. Approximately 76 percent of respondents in V4 countries and 70 percent in Slovakia alone also said that lower energy dependency will also curb wasting of energy. Eighty-six percent of Slovaks also think that EU member states should agree on a common and binding higher target for renewable sources of energy. Eighty-two percent of those questioned are in favour of such an EU-wide agreement on energy savings. “As many as 70 percent of people in Slovakia view the energy dependency on Russia as a problem”, said Szabová. According to Široký, the poll's results are in stark contrast to what the Slovak Government sees as a solution to the problem. “Instead of supporting higher targets for renewable sources of energy, energy savings and cuts in emissions of greenhouse gases, Robert Fico's Government is promoting continued energy dependency on non-EU countries”, claimed Široký.
