Abstract

Environmental problems such as climate change, air and water pollution, and biodiversity loss affect humans globally. The International Social Survey Programme (ISSP) recently released its 4th survey on environmental behavior and attitudes, measuring individuals' views on various environmental topics. The most recent data were collected between 2020 and 2023 in 28 countries worldwide. This introduction offers an overview of the development of the questionnaire, its content, and the data collection process. It also includes some descriptive results on attitudes toward climate change, behaviors that directly impact climate change, trust in various social and political institutions, the appreciation of nature, as well as nationalism and environmentalism. It concludes with an outlook on the substantive papers in this special issue, which address different relevant environmental topics and analyze the individual and national factors influencing specific environmental views and behaviors.