43 Climate change as a political challenge: a new vision of public engagement Giuseppe Pellegrini University of Padua, Padua, Italy giuseppe.pellegrini@unipd.it Introduction European public opinion is increasingly concerned with environmental issues and in particular the issue of global warming associated with climate change. Following the Eurobarometer 2015 survey, climate change is perceived to be the fourth most serious problem facing the world after poverty (30%), international terrorism (19%) and the economic situation (16%, a decrease of 8 percentage points from 2013). The proportion of respondents who think that the economic situation is the world's most serious problem has declined in all Member States. Since the last survey there has been a substantial increase in the proportion of Europeans who view international terrorism as the most serious problem now facing the world, up 11 percentage points from 2013. (Source: Eurobarometer 435, 2015)