Key Results of the Survey Report

Background

The Hong Kong chapter of the United Nations’ Sustainable Development Solutions Network (SDSN Hong Kong) has commissioned the Centre for Communication and Public Opinion Survey (CCPOS) at The Chinese University of Hong Kong (CUHK) to conduct a survey on Hong Kong youth’s opinions towards sustainable development.  Conducted in July and August 2018, the survey interviewed Hong Kong people aged between 15 and 30 and covered the following main areas:

-Understanding of and opinions towards the ‘Sustainable Development Goals’ stipulated in the United Nations’ ‘2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development’.

-Opinions towards the promotion of sustainable development in Hong Kong.

-Understanding of and opinions towards ‘social enterprise’ and ‘social innovation’.

Key Results

-About six in seven respondents (85.5%) say that they have never heard of the ‘Sustainable Development Goals’ stipulated in the United Nations’ ‘2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development’.

-To streamline the collection of respondents’ opinions, the 17 ‘Sustainable Development Goals’ were grouped into ten categories of ‘missions’, among which nine were perceived as important (given a score of 6 or above on a scale of 0 to 10) by 90%–95% of respondents.  The three categories of missions that received the highest score, i.e. perceived as most important, are ‘Tackle climate change and protect Earth’s resources’ (8.81 score), ‘Clean water resources and sustainable energy’ (8.71 score) and ‘End poverty and hunger’ (8.44 score).

-Only about three in four respondents (76.2%) say the mission of ‘Responsible production and rational consumption’ is important.  The result coincides with the findings of the ‘2018 SDG Index’[1] published by the headquarters of SDSN and Bertelsmann Stiftung in July this year.

-One in four respondents (25.7%) tends to think that the Hong Kong society is well-informed about sustainable development, while less than one in three respondents (30.8%) think that the Hong Kong youth is well-informed about this issue.

-Close to four in ten respondents (38.7%) tends to think that their companies or schools have not done enough to promote sustainable development.

-Over nine in ten respondents (93.5%) say that they are willing to take action to support sustainable development, and among them six in seven (85%) is able to name at least one individual action that could help promote sustainable development.  Among the actions mentioned by the respondents, most are related to environmental sustainability such as ‘Waste separation or waste reduction’ (47.8%) and ‘Reduction of electricity and water usage’ (30.9%).  Very few respondents could mention actions related to the other two pillars of sustainable development––‘economic development’ and ‘social inclusion’.

-About seven in ten respondents (68.7%) say that they have heard of ‘social enterprise’ or ‘social innovation’.

-Six in ten respondents (61.8%) finds ‘social enterprise’ an effective model in promoting sustainable development.

[1] As stated on the ‘2018 SDG Index’, the world’s progress towards sustainable consumption and production patterns is too slow. (Reference: http://www.sdgindex.org/reports/2018/) * The survey is commissioned by The Hong Kong Chapter of the United Nations’ Sustainable Development Solutions Network (SDSN Hong Kong), supported by HKSEC, conducted by CUHK Centre for Communication and Public Opinion Survey in August 2018.