(Justmeans.com / CSR News) -

March 11, 2010 – New research by Accenture shows that 85 percent of global consumers believe more government intervention in the energy market is the solution to reducing reliance on fossil fuels and addressing energy challenges.
 
The online study, titled “The New Energy World, A Consumer Perspective”, asked 9,005 consumers from 22 countries what they think about energy, climate change, and efforts to address them.  Although 90 percent voiced great concern over increasing energy costs, only one-third of the respondents think that reduction in energy use is the answer. 

Consumers are demanding more government intervention:

• 45 percent of respondents said governments and political leaders should take the lead in addressing climate change
• 54 percent said this could be done through controlling energy prices
• 51 percent said that governments should provide incentives for new technologies
• 41 percent said investment decisions about the development of sources of low-carbon energy should be made within political space.

Consumers prefer domestic energy providers to foreign energy companies:

• 72 percent of respondents said they are not comfortable with foreign owned energy companies
• 88 percent of this sentiment against foreign ownership is by the Dutch
• 81 percent of U.S. and Italian respondents also shared the sentiment
• Consumers in Spain (60 percent), the Middle East (53 percent), and India (33 percent) are the least concerned about foreign energy. 

However, Consumers do not trust energy providers:

• Only 22 percent of global respondents said they unconditionally trust energy companies to act on climate change.
• 32 percent said they absolutely do not trust energy companies to address energy challenges, while 46 percent said they would only if governments were directing them.
• The highest levels of distrust (around 50 percent) are in deregulated or partly deregulated markets such as the UK, the US, and Australia.
• The lowest levels of distrust (around 8 percent) are in the regulated energy markets of Japan, India, and China.

Reflecting on the survey, Group Chief Executive of Accenture’s Resources operating group, Sander van’t Noordende, is concerned that consumers are not seeing reducing their energy usage as a priority.  He says that control and command policies by the government would restrict industry flexibility and limit consumer choices.

“We cannot address climate change or energy security unless we both create new sources of clean energy and reduce consumer demand.  It will take many years before renewable alternatives come fully on stream.  Until they do, governments and energy companies will have to find creative ways to transform consumer habits and improve energy efficiency.”