BERLIN, June 18 (Xinhua) -- A large majority of Germans said that the current climate debate has no influence on this year's holiday plans, a survey conducted by the opinion research institute Civey on behalf of Spiegel Online on Tuesday showed.
More than 70 percent of the 5,000 Germans that were part of the sample group for the representative survey stated that the current climate debate had no impact on their holiday plans for 2019.
11.8 percent of Germans surveyed said that they would refrain from travel by air in view of the climate debate this year. About three percent of the respondents said they had abandoned plans for travelling on a cruise ship.
Green party supporters showed the strongest willingness to make concessions when planning their holidays. With 45.5 percent, almost every second supporter of the German green party stated that they would change their holiday plans in view of the climate debate.
Among supporters of the Social Democratic Party (SPD) and Left Party (Die Linke), people were less inclined to make sacrifices for the environment. About one in three said they would change their holiday plans.
The lowest willingness to change holiday plans was found among supporters of the Christian Democratic Union (CDU), 17 percent, and the Alternative for Germany (Afd) at only 7 percent.
When asked to describe their most important personal contribution to the topic of "sustainable consumption", almost one in three Germans (29.3 percent) mentioned the avoidance of packaging waste.
Recently, many German supermarkets started to get rid of disposable plastic bags. Discount supermarket chain Aldi announced last week to stop offering smaller disposable plastic bags that are mainly used for vegetables and fruit in order to incentivize consumers to act in more sustainable way.
Producers of consumer goods in Germany have also started to look for alternatives. Baby food manufacturer Hipp is looking to get rid of plastic in its packaging by 2025.
