Half of people underestimate Ireland's impact on the environment, according to new ESRI research.
It finds 50% think the country emits fewer emissions than is actually the case, relative to the rest of the EU.
The first of its kind study shows 90% of people here are aware climate change's caused by human activity, but a third don't know agriculture's our biggest contributor.
Head of behavioural research at the ESRI, Pete Lunn, says people also overestimate the impact of buying local and organic food on reducing emissions.
"People tended to think they had a bigger impact from reducing emissions from other behaviours, when in fact the other behaviours have a larger impact, particularly moving away from meat to a plant based diet for example.
"People didn't have the relative effects of this quite right, perhaps they tended to over weight things they were more familiar with, and under weight things that are more newly associated with climate change."
