The present study surveys the opinion of the residents of the Athens area in Greece on a wide range of issues related to climate change, such as their environmental consciousness and awareness and their willingness to take action against climate change. This study is performed at a time of a severe economic crisis in Greece. Based on a questionnaire, this study examines the general trends reported on various environmental issues, more particularly concerning climate change. The main results are that Greek citizens are aware of the problems of environmental and of climate change and also believe that the environmental quality of Greece is quite poor. They believe they are fairly well informed about climate change. However, the current economic crisis in Greece has reversed the progress made in the past concerning the awareness of climate change. Also, the citizens have very low confidence in the public authorities and the big enterprises to deal with climate change, while they have high level of trust in scientific and environmental organizations. They agree with public actions, but are against individual actions to protect the environment as they consider the main stakeholders (state, industry) to be mainly responsible for environmental degradation.

Energy poverty is a multidimensional phenomenon tied to discrimination, injustice, and energy aporophobia. The study’s motivation is to explore convergence among 31 European states from 2005 to 2022, using the log t regression test and club clustering. Energy poverty can be measured through three indicators: (i) arrears on utility bills (Arrears), (ii) ability to pay to keep the home adequately warm (Inadequately Warm), and (iii) the presence of a leaking roof, damp walls or rotten windows (Leaks). The novelty lies in quantifying energy poverty with these indicators and analyzing convergence in various regions, including the application of a robustness ordered-logit text and a slope-homogeneity test. The empirical results show that countries with the lowest Arrears scores, like Norway and Sweden, exhibit weak convergence, while those with the highest, such as Greece and Türkiye, demonstrate absolute convergence. For Inadequately Warm, Norway and Iceland also show absolute convergence, whereas for the Leaks indicator, Northern Europe performs better than Southern and Western regions. Geographically, Arrears reveal a core-periphery divide, while Inadequately Warm and Leaks highlight a North–South differentiation.