The Greening of the Global South? Analysing World Values Survey and European Values Survey Data on Environmental Movements in 88 Countries and Territories from 2017 to 2021

This study focuses on the analysis of public opinion survey data on trust in and participation in environmental movements from the World Values Survey and the European Values Survey, covering 88 countries and territories from 2017 onwards. Are we witnessing a greening of the Global South? Most of the existing, highly influential studies on this topic are based on earlier waves of the World Values Survey and the European Values Survey, with only a limited number of countries from the Global South covered in the surveys. Our various steps of multivariate analysis seem to suggest that, in today’s world, it is rather the Global South that is “greening” and where environmental movements enjoy the highest levels of participation and confidence. We can also show that, holding human development indices constant, this greening of the Global South has overall positive effects on the socio-economic development of the countries concerned.