Majority of Colombians Oppose Fracking
Tracking Global Events | 10 September 2022
In early August, the Colombian Minister of the Environment proposed a bill to ban fracking in Colombia. This marks the fourth attempt to ban fracking under newly inaugurated, leftist president Gustavo Petro, who campaigned on implementing policies to curb fossil fuel usage. To better understand sentiment of Colombians around fracking, Premise launched a sentiment survey between August 11th and 13th, 2022. Using a convenience sample, the survey received 800 responses spread across 28 of 32 Departments in Colombia, with 44% of responses coming from female contributors and 56% from male contributors.
Insights
- Among Contributors surveyed, 32% strongly oppose and 24% oppose fracking in Colombia, while only 10% support and 4% strongly support the practice.
- Overall, the vast majority believe that fracking poses an extreme risk to the health and environment of citizens, nature, and wildlife near the fracking operations.
- 63% of respondents believe there is a high risk associated with fracking, but only 16% believe fracking is important for the economy.
- When asked “Do you think fracking will provide more benefits or more problems for the people of Colombia in the future?”, 60% responded “More problems”; Moreover, 45% believe fracking should be illegal, and 35% believe it should be more regulated.
In general How Do You Feel About Fracking?
Insights
- Contributors were shown the picture to the left and asked: “In this picture, Susana Muhamad, the new Minister of Environment, is sitting at a table with posters saying “no al fracking”. Does seeing this make you oppose fracking in Colombia more?” 63% responded “Yes” and 27% responded “No”
- They were then asked: “Still thinking about the picture, how much influence do politicians, like Susana Muhamad, have on the perception of climate and energy policies of Colombian citizens?” 46% responded “moderate influence”, 34% responded “strong influence” and only 4% responded “no influence”