世界主要城市居民稱氣候變化爲最緊迫的全球問題

Residents of major world cities cite climate change as the most pressing global issue, except residents of large U.S. cities who list the economy as the bigger problem, according to a survey by HSBC Bank.

Climate change topped the list of concerns by some two-thirds of Hong Kong residents polled as well as majorities of residents of London, Paris, Sao Paolo, Toronto, Vancouver and Sydney, according to the poll of 2,044 urban residents around the world.

Residents of U.S. cities, however, ranked the economy as the biggest global issue, closely followed by terrorism with climate change ranking third.

The survey polled residents of 11 cities -- New York, Washington, Chicago, Los Angeles, Toronto, Vancouver, London, Hong Kong, Paris, Sao Paolo and Sydney.

"When you look at what the impact of the recent global downturn has been, U.S. individuals had a larger percent of their portfolio or a larger percentage of their wealth negatively affected," said Andy Ireland, head of premier banking for HSBC Bank NA. "I think there may be a correlation between the two."

U.S. respondents were hardest hit by the economic downturn with 56 percent reporting a decrease in their portfolio value.

Fifty five percent of Paris residents said their portfolios dropped in value and 45 percent of Londoners reported a decrease. However, just 19 percent of Hong Kong respondents said their portfolios lost value.

The survey was conducted online from February 17 to March 1 among respondents who had university or post-graduate educations, were ages 25 to 64 and had at least $100,000 of investable assets.

匯豐銀行開展的一項調查顯示，世界主要城市的居民認爲氣候變化是目前最爲緊迫的全球問題，而美國大城市的居民則認爲經濟問題更爲嚴峻。

這項對全球2044名城市居民開展的調查顯示，三分之二的香港受訪居民及倫敦、巴黎、聖保羅、多倫多、溫哥華和悉尼的多數居民都將氣候變化列爲他們最關注的全球問題。

而美國城市的居民則認爲經濟是目前最爲嚴峻的全球問題，其次是恐怖主義，氣候變化位居第三。

該調查對全球11個城市的居民進行了訪問，其中包括紐約、華盛頓、芝加哥、洛杉磯、多倫多、溫哥華、倫敦、香港、巴黎、聖保羅和悉尼。

匯豐銀行北美總部基礎金融服務部總監安迪•愛爾蘭說：“從最近的全球經濟衰退的影響來看，美國人在證券投資或財產上所受到的損失更大。我想該調查的結果可能與此有關。”

美國受訪者受到經濟衰退的打擊最嚴重，56%的人稱自己的證券資產價值減少。

55%的巴黎居民稱他們的證券資產價值下跌，倫敦和香港的這一比例分別爲45%和19%。

該在線調查於2月17日至3月1日開展，調查對象爲年齡在25歲到64歲之間、有大學本科或碩士學歷、可投資資產至少達10萬美元的城市居民。

Vocabulary:

portfolio: a set of shares owned by a particular person or organization （個人或機構的）投資組合，有價證券組合