Eighty per cent of Swiss people do not shop with the climate in mind

Climate change influences the purchasing decisions of four people in five in Switzerland little or not at all. That is the finding of a Comparis survey conducted in July 2026 among 1,040 residents, marking a rise of ten percentage points compared with the 2020 to 2023 period.

The breakdown of answers separates two different attitudes. Thirty-four per cent of respondents say the climate has no bearing at all on their choices, while 46 per cent describe a minimal influence. Only 20 per cent state that the issue weighs significantly on what they buy.

Income moves the figure in a perhaps unexpected direction. Among those with a household income above 8,000 francs a month, 84 per cent say they are not influenced. Among those below 4,000, the share falls to 75 per cent. Those with more room to choose, then, use it less often for environmental reasons than those with less.

The consumption figures

The stated positions are borne out by actual data, all pointing the same way. Meat consumption rose to 51 kilos per person in 2025, against 48 in 2023. Egg consumption hit a record, exceeding 209 per inhabitant per year. Zurich airport recorded 23.2 million departing passengers in 2025, beyond the previous record set in 2019.

Michael Kuhn, the expert consulted for the survey, identifies the gap between declared agreement and concrete behaviour: people ask for action, but resist giving up flights, clothing and other consumer goods.

Among the causes of the detachment are the issues occupying attention in the climate's place: health insurance premiums, housing costs, wars and inflation. Added to these are fatigue with a debate that has run for years and a sense of being unable to make a difference through individual choices.

That last point deserves attention, because it contains a measure of truth. Emissions linked to private consumption depend largely on infrastructure, supply and prices that individuals do not determine: someone with no alternative to an expensive train or to the poorly insulated building they live in cannot change much through the weekly shop. A survey on purchasing intentions measures that too, not just respondents' goodwill.

The fact remains that the three indicators cited, meat, eggs and flights, are all moving upwards in a year when drought has forced water restrictions in several cantons. That is the distance the survey captures.