REPORT: Prague Climate Talks: Climate change: Can It Unite a Divided Society?

On 17th September 2020 we organized this year's third online debate from the Climate Talks cycle. The topic was the social dimensions of climate policies.

• The third debate of this year’s Prague Climate Talks series was held online on Thursday 17th September from 5 pm. The project is organised by EUROPEUM Institute for European Policy in cooperation with Heirich-Böll-Stiftung Prague and under the auspices of the UN Information Centre in Prague.
• The discussion focused on the social dimensions of climate policies and was joined by Matěj Stropnický, journalist and ex-chairman of the Green Party, Michaela Trtíková Vojtková from STEM and Petr Doubravský, co-founder of Fridays for Future Czech Republic. The debate was moderated by Kateřina Davidová from EUROPEUM.
• The recording of the debate is available on the Facebook page of EUROPEUM Institute for European Policy.

The debate focused on society’s reaction to climate change and its possible solutions especially in the Czech context, which is rather specific in many ways. Michaela Trtíková Vojtková began by confirming that opinion polls repeatedly show that the Czechs love nature and want to protect it, but they don’t like it when it brings them extra costs. Matěj Stropnický continued by highlighting the importance of the role that the voice of the president plays in the Czech public debate and how he shapes the climate scepticism in the public discourse. Petr Doubravský then added that Czech media don’t know how to tackle the topic correctly and as a result, the Czech public for example doesn’t make a connection between climate change and nature preservation.

Full report can be downloaded through the PDF button on the right.

Kateřina Davidová
Senior Research Fellow

Expertise: EU climate and energy policy, environmental protection