Climate remains a top concern for voters in Denmark, study finds

Ahead of the local elections taking place this week in Denmark, a new study has found that climate policy remains one of the top concerns for voters, despite a recent shift in the political narrative.

Some 41% of Danes consider climate policy to be one of the most important factors influencing how they will vote in the local elections, slightly below health policy (44%) and just ahead of defence policy (40%), the CONCITO Climate Barometer found.

Some 57% of voters said that politicians’ efforts to curb climate change will have an impact on their voting intentions in the next election.

Voting intentions

“When defence, security and foreign policy take up more and more space, one would think that climate would fall out of voters’ consciousness – but it doesn’t,” commented Christian Ibsen, director, CONCITO.

“What is remarkable is that climate is still so high, even though only a few party leaders today profile themselves on climate.”

A ‘serious’ issue

According to CONCITO’s survey, which was undertaken in October 2025 in conjunction with ClimAct and Dronning Mary’s Center, a sizeable majority (88%) of respondents believe that climate change is a ‘serious’ issue that needs to be addressed, with 41% considering it ‘very serious’.

However, at the same time, less than a quarter (23%) believe that climate change affects their everyday lives, a drop from 40% in 2022.

Close to two thirds (63%) of Danes believe that the country’s climate efforts are amongst the ‘most ambitious’ in the world, a figure that has stayed relatively consistent since 2022.

“There is a need to reignite climate ambition and the link to the need for concrete action,” Ibsen added. “The figures show that resistance to climate policy is very limited and this is a great open invitation to take political leadership, both nationally and locally.

“It is now that we must show that ambitions can be translated into concrete action – not least in the municipalities, which hold the key to green mobility, energy planning and climate adaptation.”

Online shopping

Elsewhere, a separate consumer study taken ahead of Black Friday indicates that around half of younger consumers in Denmark believe that climate impact is important when shopping online, with four in ten stating that it is ‘important’ to them that the online stores they shop with take responsibility for sustainability.

Some 14.7% of younger Danish shoppers are also likely to demand more sustainable delivery options from their online purchases, compared to just 1.3% of Danes in older age demographics, the survey, undertaken by Nets Danmark A/S, found. Read more here and here.