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Public opinion on climate change is the aggregate of attitudes or beliefs held by the adult population concerning the science, economics, and politics of climate change. It is affected by media coverage of climate change.
General overview
In January 2021, the United Nations Development Programme
reported results of the largest-ever climate survey, which indicated
that two-thirds of respondents consider climate change as an emergency,
with forest and land conservation being the most popular solutions.
Specifically, The Peoples' Climate Vote (1.2 million respondents in
over 50 countries) found that 64% said climate change was an emergency –
presenting a clear and convincing call for decision-makers to step up
on ambition.
Influences on individual opinion
Geographic region
For a list of countries and their opinion see "Climate change opinion by country" below
Proportion
reporting knowing "something" or "a great deal" about global warming in
2007–08. Darker areas indicate a greater proportion of individuals
aware, yellow indicates no data.
Proportion
responding yes when asked, "Temperature rise is part of global warming
or climate change. Do you think rising temperatures are [...] a result
of human activities?"
Proportion responding that global warming is a serious personal threat
Between 2007–20010, the Gallup World Poll
surveyed individuals in 143 countries. This poll queried whether the
respondent knew of global warming. Those who had a basic concept of
global warming didn't necessarily connect it to human activities,
revealing that knowledge of global warming and the knowledge that it's
human-induced are two separate things. Over a third of the world's
population were unaware of global warming. Developing countries have less awareness than developed, and Africa the least aware. Of those aware, residents of Latin America
and developed countries in Asia led the belief that climate change is a
result of human activities while Africa, parts of Asia and the Middle
East, and a few countries from the former Soviet Union led in the opposite. Opinion within the United Kingdom was divided.
The first major worldwide poll, conducted by Gallup in 2008–2009
in 127 countries, found that some 62% of people worldwide said they knew
about global warming. In the industrialized countries of North America, Europe, and Japan, 67% or more knew about it (97% in the U.S., 99% in Japan); in developing countries,
especially in Africa, fewer than a quarter knew about it, although many
had noticed local weather changes. The survey results suggest that
between 2007 and 2010 only 42% of the world's population were aware of
climate change and believed that it is caused by human activity. Among
those who knew about global warming, there was a wide variation between
nations in belief that the warming was a result of human activities.
Adults in Asia, with the exception of those in developed
countries, are the least likely to perceive global warming as a threat.
In developed Asian countries like South Korea, perceptions of climate
change are associated with strong emotional beliefs about its causes.
In the western world, individuals are the most likely to be aware and
perceive it as a very or somewhat serious threat to themselves and their
families; although Europeans are more concerned about climate change than those in the United States.
However, the public in Africa, where individuals are the most
vulnerable to global warming while producing the least carbon dioxide,
is the least aware – which translates into a low perception that it is a
threat.
These variations pose a challenge to policymakers,
as different countries travel down different paths, making an agreement
over an appropriate response difficult. While Africa may be the most
vulnerable and produce the least amount of greenhouse gases, they are
the most ambivalent. The top five emitters (China,
the United States, India, Russia, and Japan), who together emit half
the world's greenhouse gases, vary in both awareness and concern. The
United States, Russia, and Japan are the most aware at over 85% of the
population. Conversely, only two-thirds of people in China and one-third
in India are aware. Japan expresses the greatest concern, which
translates into support for environmental policies. People in China,
Russia, and the United States, while varying in awareness, have
expressed a similar proportion of aware individuals concerned.
Similarly, those aware in India are likely to be concerned, but India
faces challenges spreading this concern to the remaining population as
its energy needs increase over the next decade.
An online survey on environmental questions conducted in 20
countries by Ipsos MORI, "Global Trends 2014", shows broad agreement,
especially on climate change and if it is caused by humans, though the
U.S. ranked lowest with 54% agreement. It has been suggested that the low U.S. ranking is tied to denial campaigns.
A 2010 survey of 14 industrialized countries found that skepticism
about the danger of global warming was highest in Australia, Norway,
New Zealand and the United States, in that order, correlating positively
with per capita emissions of carbon dioxide.
Education
In countries varying in awareness, an educational gap translates into a gap in awareness.
However an increase in awareness does not always result in an increase
in perceived threat. In China, 98% of those who have completed four
years or more of college education reported knowing something or a great
deal of climate change while only 63% of those who have completed nine
years of education reported the same. Despite the differences in
awareness in China, all groups perceive a low level of threat from
global warming. In India, those who are educated are more likely to be
aware, and those who are educated there are far more likely to report
perceiving global warming as a threat than those who are not educated.
In Europe, individuals who have attained a higher level of education
perceive climate change as a serious threat. There is also a strong
association between education and Internet use. Europeans who use the
Internet more are more likely to perceive climate change as a serious
threat. However, a survey of American adults found "little disagreement among culturally diverse citizens
on what science knows about climate change. In the US, individuals with
greater science literacy and education have more polarized beliefs on
climate change.
Demographics
Residential demographics
affect perceptions of global warming. In China, 77% of those who live
in urban areas are aware of global warming compared to 52% in rural
areas. This trend is mirrored in India with 49% to 29% awareness,
respectively.
Of the countries where at least half the population is aware of
global warming, those with the majority who believe that global warming
is due to human activities have a greater national GDP per unit
energy—or, a greater energy efficiency.
In Europe, individuals under fifty-five are more likely to
perceive both "poverty, lack of food and drinking water" and climate
change as a serious threat than individuals over fifty-five. Male
individuals are more likely to perceive climate change as a threat than
female individuals. Managers, white-collar workers, and students are
more likely to perceive climate change as a greater threat than house
persons and retired individuals.
In the United States, conservative white men are more likely than other Americans to deny climate change. A very similar trend has been documented in Norway, where 63% of conservative men deny anthropogenic climate change compared to just 36% of the general Norwegian population. In Sweden, political conservatism was similarly found to correlate with climate change denial, while in Brazil, climate change denial has been found to be more correlated with gender, with men being significantly more likely to express denialist viewpoints compared to women.
In Great Britain, a movement of by women known as "birthstrikers" advocates for refraining from procreation until the possibility of "climate breakdown and civilisation collapse" is averted.
In general, there is a substantial variation in the direction in
which demographic traits, like age or gender, correlate with climate
change concern. While women and younger people tend to be more concerned
about climate change in English-speaking constituencies, the opposite
is true in most African countries.
Political identification
Democrats
(blue) and Republicans (red) have long differed in views of the
importance of addressing climate change, with the gap widening in the
late 2010s mainly through Democrats' share increasing by more than 30
points.
(Discontinuity resulted from survey changing in 2015 from reciting "global warming" to "climate change".)
In the United States, support for environmental protection was relatively non-partisan in the twentieth century. Republican Theodore Roosevelt established national parks whereas Democrat Franklin Delano Roosevelt established the Soil Conservation Service. Republican Richard Nixon was instrumental in founding the United States Environmental Protection Agency, and tried to install a third pillar of NATO dealing with environmental challenges such as acid rain and the greenhouse effect. Daniel Patrick Moynihan was Nixon's NATO delegate for the topic.
This non-partisanship began to erode during the 1980s, when the Reagan administration
described environmental protection as an economic burden. Views over
global warming began to seriously diverge between Democrats and
Republicans during the negotiations that led up to the creation of the Kyoto Protocol
in 1998. In a 2008 Gallup poll of the American public, 76% of Democrats
and only 41% of Republicans said that they believed global warming was
already happening. The opinions of the political elites, such as members of Congress, tends to be even more polarized.
Public opinion on climate change can be influenced by who people
vote for. Although media coverage influences how some view climate
change, research shows that voting behavior influences climate change
skepticism. This shows that people's views on climate change tend to
align with the people they voted for.
In Europe, opinion is not strongly divided among left and right parties. Although European political parties on the left, including Green parties,
strongly support measures to address climate change, conservative
European political parties maintain similar sentiments, most notably in
Western and Northern Europe. For example, Margaret Thatcher,
never a friend of the coal mining industry, was a strong supporter of
an active climate protection policy and was instrumental in founding the
Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change and the British Hadley Centre for Climate Prediction and Research. Some speeches, as to the Royal Society on 27 September 1988
and to the UN general assembly in November 1989 helped to put climate
change, acid rain, and general pollution in the British mainstream.
After her career, however, Thatcher was less of a climate activist, as
she called climate action a "marvelous excuse for supranational
socialism", and called Al Gore an "apocalyptic hyperbole". France's center-right President Chirac pushed key environmental and climate change policies in France in 2005–2007. Conservative German administrations (under the Christian Democratic Union and Christian Social Union) in the past two decades have supported European Union climate change initiatives; concern about forest dieback and acid rain regulation were initiated under Kohl's archconservative minister of the interior Friedrich Zimmermann. In the period after former President George W. Bush announced that the United States was leaving the Kyoto Treaty, European media and newspapers on both the left and right criticized the move. The conservative Spanish La Razón, the Irish Times, the Irish Independent, the Danish Berlingske Tidende, and the Greek Kathimerini all condemned the Bush administration's decision, as did left-leaning newspapers.
In Norway, a 2013 poll conducted by TNS Gallup found that 92% of those who vote for the Socialist Left Party and 89% of those who vote for the Liberal Party believe that global warming is caused by humans, while the percentage who held this belief is 60% among voters for the Conservative Party and 41% among voters for the Progress Party.
The shared sentiments between the political left and right on
climate change further illustrate the divide in perception between the
United States and Europe on climate change. As an example, conservative
German Prime Ministers Helmut Kohl and Angela Merkel
have differed with other parties in Germany only on how to meet
emissions reduction targets, not whether or not to establish or fulfill
them.
A 2017 study found that those who changed their opinion on
climate change between 2010 and 2014 did so "primarily to align better
with those who shared their party identification and political ideology.
This conforms with the theory of motivated reasoning: Evidence
consistent with prior beliefs is viewed as strong and, on politically
salient issues, people strive to bring their opinions into conformance
with those who share their political identity".
Furthermore, a 2019 study examining the growing skepticism of climate
change among American Republicans argues that persuasion and rhetoric
from party elites play a critical role in public opinion formation, and
that these elite cues are propagated through mainstream and social media
sources.
For those who care about the environment and want change are not
happy about some policies, for example the support of the cap and trade
policy but very few people are willing to pay more than 15 dollars per
month for a program that is supposed to help the environment. There is
evidence that not many people are aware of climate change in the US,
only 2% of respondents ranked the environment as the top issue in the
US.
Individual risk assessment and assignment
The IPCC attempts to orchestrate global (climate) change research to shape a worldwide consensus. However, the consensus approach has been dubbed more a liability than an asset in comparison to other environmental challenges. The linear model of policy-making, based on a more knowledge we have, the better the political response will be is said to have not been working and is in the meantime rejected by sociology.
Sheldon Ungar, a Canadian sociologist, compares the different public reactions towards ozone depletion and climate change.
The public opinion failed to tie climate change to concrete events
which could be used as a threshold or beacon to signify immediate
danger.
Scientific predictions of a temperature rise of two to three degrees
Celsius over several decades do not respond with people, e.g. in North
America, that experience similar swings during a single day. As scientists define global warming a problem of the future, a liability in "attention economy",
pessimistic outlooks in general and assigning extreme weather to
climate change have often been discredited or ridiculed (compare Gore effect) in the public arena. While the greenhouse effect per se is essential for life on earth, the case was quite different with the ozone shield
and other metaphors about the ozone depletion. The scientific
assessment of the ozone problem also had large uncertainties. But the
metaphors used in the discussion (ozone shield, ozone hole) reflected
better with lay people and their concerns.
The idea of rays penetrating a
damaged "shield" meshes nicely with abiding and resonant cultural
motifs, including "Hollywood affinities". These range from the shields
on the Starship Enterprise to Star Wars, ... It is these pre-scientific
bridging metaphors built around the penetration of a deteriorating
shield that render the ozone problem relatively simple. That the ozone
threat can be linked with Darth Vader means that it is encompassed in
common sense understandings that are deeply ingrained and widely shared.
(Sheldon Ungar 2000)
The chlorofluorocarbon (CFC) regulation attempts of the end of the
1980s profited from those easy-to-grasp metaphors and the personal risk
assumptions taken from them. As well the fate of celebrities like
President Ronald Reagan,
which had skin cancer removal in 1985 and 1987, was of high importance.
In case of the public opinion on climate change, no imminent danger is
perceived.
Ideology
In the United States, ideology is an effective predictor of party identification, where conservatives are more prevalent among Republicans, and moderates and liberals among independents and Democrats. A shift in ideology is often associated with in a shift in political views.
For example, when the number of conservatives rose from 2008 to 2009,
the number of individuals who felt that global warming was being
exaggerated in the media also rose.
The 2006 BBC World Service poll found that when asked about various
policy options to reduce greenhouse gas emissions – tax incentives for
alternative energy research and development, installment of taxes to
encourage energy conservation, and reliance on nuclear energy to reduce
fossil fuels. The majority of those asked felt that tax incentives were
the path of action that they preferred.
As of May 2016, polls have repeatedly found that a majority of
Republican voters, particularly young ones, believe the government
should take action to reduce carbon dioxide emissions.
The pursuit of green energy is an ideology that defines hydroelectric dams, natural gas power plants, and nuclear power as unacceptable alternative energies for the eight billion tons of coal burnt each year. While there is popular support for wind, solar, biomass, and geothermal energy, all these sources combined only supplied 1.3% of global energy in 2013.
After a country host the annual Conference of the Parties (COP)
climate legislation increases which causes policy diffusion. There is
strong evidence of policy diffusion which is when a policy is made it is
influenced by the policy choices made elsewhere.This can a have
positive effect on climate legislation.
Scientific analyses of international survey data show that
right-wing orientation and individualism are strongly correlated to
climate change denial in the US and other English-speaking countries,
but much less in most non-English speaking nations.
Charts
A 2018
study found that individuals were more likely to accept that global
temperatures were increasing if they were shown the information in a
chart rather than in text.
Issues
Science
A scientific consensus on climate change exists, as recognized by national academies of science
and other authoritative bodies. The opinion gap between scientists and
the public in 2009 stands at 84% to 49% that global temperatures are
increasing because of human-activity.
However, more recent research has identified substantial geographical
variation in the public's understanding of the scientific consensus.
Economics
Economic debates weigh the benefits of limiting industrial emissions
of mitigating global warming against the costs that such changes would
entail. While there is a greater amount of agreement over whether global
warming exists, there is less agreement over the appropriate response.
Electric or petroleum distribution may be government owned or utilities
may be regulated by government. The government owned or regulated
utilities may, or may not choose to make lower emissions a priority over
economics, in unregulated counties industry follows economic
priorities. An example of the economic priority is Royal Dutch Shell PLC reporting CO2 emissions of 81 million metric tonnes in 2013.
Media
The popular media in the U.S. gives greater attention to skeptics
relative to the scientific community as a whole, and the level of
agreement within the scientific community has not been accurately
communicated.
US popular media coverage differs from that presented in other
countries, where reporting is more consistent with the scientific
literature. Some journalists attribute the difference to climate change denial being propagated, mainly in the US, by business-centered organizations employing tactics worked out previously by the US tobacco lobby.
However, one study suggests that these tactic are less prominent in the
media and that the public instead draws their opinions on climate
mainly from the cues of political party elites.
The efforts of Al Gore
and other environmental campaigns have focused on the effects of global
warming and have managed to increase awareness and concern, but despite
these efforts as of 2007, the number of Americans believing humans are
the cause of global warming was holding steady at 61%, and those
believing the popular media was understating the issue remained about
35%.
Between 2010 and 2013, the number of Americans who believe the media
under-reports the seriousness of global warming has been increasing, and
the number who think media over-states it has been falling. According
to a 2013 Gallup US opinion poll, 57% believe global warming is at
least as bad as portrayed in the media (with 33% thinking media has
downplayed global warming and 24% saying coverage is accurate). Less
than half of Americans (41%) think the problem is not as bad as media
portrays it.
September 2011 Angus Reid Public Opinion
poll found that Britons (43%) are less likely than Americans (49%) or
Canadians (52%) to say that "global warming is a fact and is mostly
caused by emissions from vehicles and industrial facilities". The same
poll found that 20% of Americans, 20% of Britons and 14% of Canadians
think "global warming is a theory that has not yet been proven".
A March 2013 Public Policy Polling poll about widespread and infamous conspiracy theories found that 37% of American voters believe that global warming is a hoax, while 51% do not.
A 2013 poll in Norway conducted by TNS Gallup found that 66% of
the population believe that climate change is caused by humans, while
17% do not believe this.
Politics
Public opinion impacts on the issue of climate change because
governments need willing electorates and citizens in order to implement
policies that address climate change. Further, when climate change
perceptions differ between the populace and governments, the
communication of risk to the public becomes problematic. Finally, a
public that is not aware of the issues surrounding climate change may
resist or oppose climate change policies, which is of considerable
importance to politicians and state leaders.
Public support for action to forestall global warming is as
strong as public support has been historically for many other government
actions; however, it is not "intense" in the sense that it overrides
other priorities.
A 2009 Eurobarometer survey found that, on the average, Europeans
rate climate change as the second most serious problem facing the world
today, between "poverty, the lack of food and drinking water" and "a
major global economic downturn." 87% of Europeans consider climate
change to be a "serious" or "very serious" problem, while 10% "do not
consider it a serious problem." However, the proportion who believe it
to be a problem has dropped in the period 2008/9 when the surveys were
conducted.
While the small majority believe climate change is a serious threat,
55% percent believe the EU is doing too little and 30% believe the EU is
going the right amount.
As a result of European Union climate change perceptions, "climate
change is an issue that has reached such a level of social and political
acceptability across the EU that it enables (indeed, forces) the EU
Commission and national leaders to produce all sorts of measures,
including taxes." Despite the persistent high level of personal involvement of European citizens, found in another Eurobarometer survey in 2011, EU leaders have begun to downscale climate policy issues on the political agenda since the beginning of the Eurozone crisis.
Although public opinion may not be the only factor influencing
renewable energy policies, it is a key catalyst. Research has found that
the shifts in public opinion in the direction of pro-environmentalism
strongly increased the adoption of renewable energy policies in Europe,
which can thus be applied in the U.S. and how important climate
solutions are to Americans.
Moreover, other research shows that countries in which more people
believe in human-made climate change tend to have higher carbon prices.
The proportion of Americans who believe that the effects of
global warming have begun or will begin in a few years rose to a peak in
2008 where it then declined, and a similar trend was found regarding
the belief that global warming is a threat to their lifestyle within
their lifetime.
Concern over global warming often corresponds with economic downturns
and national crisis such as 9/11 as Americans prioritize the economy and
national security over environmental concerns. However the drop in
concern in 2008 is unique compared to other environmental issues.
Considered in the context of environmental issues, Americans consider
global warming as a less critical concern than the pollution of rivers,
lakes, and drinking water; toxic waste; fresh water needs; air
pollution; damage to the ozone layer; and the loss of tropical rain
forests. However, Americans prioritize global warming over species
extinction and acid rain issues. Since 2000 the partisan gap has grown as Republican and Democratic views diverge.
Climate change opinion by country
Proportion
who reported knowing "something" or a "great deal" about global
warming. Darker areas indicate a greater proportion of individuals
aware, yellow indicates no data.
Proportion
responding yes when asked, "Temperature rise is part of global warming
or climate change. Do you think rising temperatures are [...] a result
of human activities?"
Proportion responding in 2008–09 that global warming was a serious personal threat.
Climate change opinion is the aggregate of public opinion
held by the adult population. Cost constraints often restrict surveys
to sample only one or two countries from each continent or focus on only
one region. Because of differences among questions, wording, and
methods—it is difficult to reliably compare results or to generalize
them to opinions held worldwide.
In 2007–2008, the Gallup Poll surveyed individuals from 128 countries in the first comprehensive study of global opinions. The Gallup Organization
aggregated opinion from the adult population fifteen years of age and
older, either through the telephone or personal interviews, and in both
rural and urban areas except in areas where the safety of interviewer
was threatened and in scarcely populated islands. Personal interviews
were stratified by population size or geography and cluster sampling was achieved through one or more stages. Although error bounds vary, they were all below ±6% with 95% confidence.
Weighting countries to a 2008 World Bank population estimate, 61% of individuals worldwide were aware of global warming,
developed countries more aware than developing, with Africa the least
aware. The median of people perceiving it as a threat was 47%. Latin
America and developed countries in Asia led the belief that climate
change was a result of human activities, while Africa, parts of Asia and
the Middle East, and countries from the Former Soviet Union led in the
opposite. Awareness often translates to concern, although of those
aware, individuals in Europe and developed countries in Asia perceived
global warming as a greater threat than others.
Views on climate change by region
Africa
People
in Africa are relatively concerned about climate change compared to the
Middle East and parts of Asia. However, they are less concerned than
most of Latin America and Europe. Currently, 61% of people in Africa
consider climate change to be a very serious problem, and 52% believe
that climate change is harming people now. While 59% of Africans are
worried about droughts or water shortages, only 16% are concerned about
severe weather, and 3% are concerned about rising sea levels.
Countries in Sub-Saharan Africa are especially troubled about
increasing desertification even as they account for .04% of global
carbon dioxide emissions.
In Sub-Saharan Africa, the concern over climate change drops to only
34% of the population considering climate change to be a "very" or
"somewhat serious issue". Even so, according to the Pew Research Center
2015 Global Attitudes Survey, some particular countries are more
concerned than others. In Uganda 79% of people, 68% in Ghana, 45% in
South Africa and 40% in Ethiopia consider climate change to be a very
serious problem.
Latin America
Latin America
has a larger percentage of people concerned with climate change than
other regions of the world. 74% consider climate change to be a serious
problem and 77% say that it is harming people now which is 20 points
higher than the global median according to the Pew Research Center. 63% of people in Latin America are very concerned that climate change will harm them personally.
When looked at more specifically, Mexico and Central America are the
most worried at 81.5% believing that climate change is a very serious
issue. South America is slightly less anxious at 75% and the Caribbean,
at the relatively high rate of 66.7%, is the least concerned. Brazil is an important country in global climate change politics
because it is the eleventh largest emitter and unlike other large
emitter countries, 86% consider global warming to be a very serious
problem.
Compared to the rest of the world, Latin America is more consistently
concerned with high percentages of the population worried about climate
change. Further, in Latin America, 67% believe in personal
responsibility for climate change and say that people will have to make
major lifestyle modifications.
Europe
Europeans
have a tendency to be more concerned about climate change than much of
the world, with the exception of Latin America. However there is a
divide between Eastern Europe, where people are less worried about climate change, and Western Europe.
A global climate survey by the European Investment Bank showed that
climate is the number one concern for Europeans. Most respondents said
they were already feeling the effects of climate change. Many people
believed climate change can still be reversed with 68% of Spanish
respondents believing it can be reversed and 80% seeing themselves as
part of the solution.
In Europe, there is a range from 88% to 97% of people feeling
that climate change is happening and similar ranges are present for
agreeing that climate change is caused by human activity and that the
impacts of it will be bad.
Generally Eastern European countries are slightly less likely to
believe in climate change, or the dangers of it, with 63% saying it is
very serious, 24% considering it to be fairly serious and only 10%
saying it is not a serious problem.
When asked if they feel a personal responsibility to help reduce
climate change, on a scale of 0, not at all, to 10, a great deal,
Europeans respond with the average score of 5.6.
When looked at more specifically, Western Europeans are closer to the
response of 7 while Eastern European countries respond with an average
of less than 4. When asked if Europeans are willing to pay more for
climate change, 49% are willing, however only 9% of Europeans have
already switched to a greener energy supply.
While a large majority of Europeans believe in the dangers of climate
change, their feelings of personal responsibility to deal with the issue
are much more limited. Especially in terms of actions that could
already have been taken - such as having already switched to greener
energies discussed above - one can see Europeans' feelings of personal
responsibility are limited. 90% of Europeans interviewed for the European Investment Bank
Climate Survey 2019 believe their children will be impacted by climate
change in their everyday lives and 70% are willing to pay an extra tax
to fight climate change.
Asia/Pacific
Asia
and the Pacific have a tendency to be less concerned about climate
change, except small island states, with developing countries in Asia
being less concerned than developed countries. In Asia and the Pacific,
around 45% of people believe that climate change is a very serious
problem and similarly 48% believe that it is harming people now. Only 37% of people in Asia and the Pacific are very concerned that climate change will harm them personally.
There is a large gap between developing Asia and developed Asia. Only
31% of developing Asia considers global warming to be a "very" or
"somewhat" serious threat and 74% of developed Asia considers global
warming to be a serious threat.
It could be argued that one reason for this is that people in more
developed countries in Asia are more educated on the issues, especially
given that developing countries in Asia do face significant threats from
climate change. The most relevant views on climate change are those of
the citizens in the countries that are emitting the most. For example,
in China, the world's largest emitter, 68% of Chinese people are satisfied with their government's efforts to preserve the environment. And in India, the world's third largest emitter, 77% of Indian people are satisfied with their country's efforts to preserve the environment.
80% of Chinese citizens interviewed in the European Investment Bank
Climate Survey 2019 believe climate change is still reversible, 72%
believe their individual behaviour can make a difference in addressing climate change.
Middle East
While the increasing severity of droughts and other dangerous realities are and will continue to be a problem in the Middle East,
the region has one of the smallest rates of concern in the world. 38%
believe that climate change is a very serious problem and 26% believe
that climate change is harming people now. Of the four Middle Eastern countries polled in a Pew Global Study, on what is their primary concern, Israel, Jordan, and Lebanon named ISIS, and Turkey stated United States encroachment. 38% of Israel considers climate change to be a major threat to their country, 40% of Jordan, 58% of Lebanon and 53% of Turkey.
This is compared to relatively high numbers of residents who believe
that ISIS is a major threat to their country ranging from 63% to 97%. In
the poll, 38% of the Middle East are concerned about drought and 19%
are concerned about long periods of unusually hot weather. 42% are satisfied with their own country's current efforts to preserve the environment.
North America
U.S.
Democrats (blue) and Republicans (red) have long differed in views of
the importance of addressing climate change, with the gap widening in
the late 2010s mainly through Democrats' share increasing by more than
30 points.
(Discontinuity resulted from survey changing in 2015 from reciting "global warming" to "climate change".)
North America has mixed perceptions on climate change ranging from Mexico and Canada that are both more concerned, and the United States, the world's second largest emitter,
that is less concerned. Mexico is the most concerned about climate
change of the three countries in North America. 90% consider climate
change to be a very serious problem and 83% believe that climate change
is harming people substantially right now.
Canadians are also seriously concerned, 20% are extremely concerned,
30% are definitely concerned, 31% are somewhat concerned and only 19%
are not very/not at all concerned about climate change. While the United States which is the largest emitter of CO2 in North America and the second largest emitter of CO2 in the world
has the lowest degrees of concern about climate change in North
America. While 61% of Americans say they are concerned about climate
change,
that is 30% lower than Mexico and 20% lower than Canada. 41% believe
that climate change could impact them personally. Nonetheless, 70% of
Americans believe that environmental protections are more important than
economic growth according to a Yale climate opinion study.
76% of US citizens interviewed for the European Investment Bank Climate
Survey 2019 believe developed countries have a responsibility to help
developing countries address climate change.
United States
In 2009 Yale University
conducted a study identifying global warming's "Six Americas". The
report identifies six audiences with different opinions about global
warming: The alarmed (18%), the concerned (33%), the cautious (19%), the
disengaged (12%), the doubtful (11%) and the dismissive (7%). The
alarmed and concerned make out the largest percentage and think
something should be done about global warming. The cautious, disengaged
and doubtful are less likely to take action. The dismissive are
convinced global warming is not happening. These audiences can be used
to define the best approaches for environmental action. The theory of
the 'Six Americas' is also used for marketing purposes.
Opinions in the United States vary intensely enough to be considered a culture war.
In a January 2013 survey, Pew found that 69% of Americans say
there is solid evidence that the Earth's average temperature has gotten
warmer over the past few decades, up six points since November 2011 and
12 points since 2009.
A Gallup poll in 2014 concluded that 51 percent of Americans were
a little or not at all worried about climate change, 24 percent a great
deal and 25 percent a fair amount.
In 2015, 32 percent or Americans were worried about global
warming as a great deal, 37 percent in 2016, and 45 percent in 2017. A
poll taken in 2016 shows that 52% of Americans believe climate change to
be caused by human activity, while 34% state it is caused by natural changes. Data is increasingly showing that 62 percent of Americans believe that the effects of global warming are happening now in 2017.
In 2016 GALLUP
found that 64% of Americans are worried about global warming, 59%
believed that global warming is already happening and 65% is convinced
that global warming is caused by human activities. These numbers show
that awareness of global warming is increasing in the United States
In 2019 GALLUP found that one-third of Americans blame unusual winter temperatures on climate change.
In 2019 the Yale Program on Climate Change Communication found
that 69% of Americans believe that climate change is happening.
Additionally, their research also found that Americans think that only
54% of the country believes that climate change is happening. These
figures show that there is a disconnect between perceived public
perception of the issue and reality.
Differences between regions
While
climate change will affect the entire world, opinion differences
between regions of the world about these affects vary significantly. The
Middle East has one of the smallest rates of concern in the world,
especially compared to Latin America.
Europe and Africa have mixed views on climate change but lean towards
action by a significant degree. Europeans focus substantially on climate
change when compared to United States residents, which are less
concerned than the global median, even as the United States is the second biggest emitter in the world.
Droughts/water shortages are one of the biggest fears about the impacts
of climate change, especially in Latin America and Africa.
Developed countries in Asia have levels of concern about climate change
similar to Latin America which has one of the highest rates of concern.
This is surprising as developing countries in Asia have levels of worry
similar to the Middle East, one of the areas with the lowest levels of
concern.
Large emitters such as China usually ignore issues surrounding climate
change as people in China have very low levels of concern about it.
The only significant exception to this tendency by large emitters, is
Brazil and India . India I'd the third and Brazil is eleventh biggest
emitter in the world and are countries that have high levels of concern
about climate change, levels similar to much of Latin America.
Percentage in each region who agree with statements regarding climate change (in 2015)
| Africa
|
61%
|
52%
|
61%
|
| Latin America
|
74%
|
77%
|
63%
|
| Europe
|
54%
|
60%
|
27%
|
| Asia/Pacific
|
45%
|
48%
|
37%
|
| Middle East
|
38%
|
26%
|
27%
|
| United States
|
45%
|
41%
|
30%
|
| China
|
18%
|
49%
|
15%
|
| Global Median
|
54%
|
51%
|
40%
|
Source: Pew Research Center's Spring 2015 Global Attitudes Survey - Q32, Q41 & Q42
Percentage of each country polled who agree with statement (in 2015)
| Canada
|
51%
|
| U.S.
|
45%
|
| France
|
56%
|
| Italy
|
55%
|
| Germany
|
55%
|
| Spain
|
53%
|
| UK
|
41%
|
| Poland
|
19%
|
| Russia
|
33%
|
| Ukraine
|
80%
|
| Lebanon
|
67%
|
| Jordan
|
44%
|
| Palestine
|
38%
|
| Turkey
|
37%
|
| Israel
|
24%
|
| India
|
76%
|
| Philippines
|
72%
|
| Vietnam
|
69%
|
| South Korea
|
48%
|
| Japan
|
45%
|
| Malaysia
|
44%
|
| Australia
|
43%
|
| Indonesia
|
41%
|
| Pakistan
|
29%
|
| China
|
18%
|
| Brazil
|
86%
|
| Chile
|
77%
|
| Peru
|
75%
|
| Venezuela
|
72%
|
| Mexico
|
66%
|
| Argentina
|
59%
|
| Burkina Faso
|
79%
|
| Uganda
|
76%
|
| Ghana
|
68%
|
| Kenya
|
62%
|
| Nigeria
|
61%
|
| Senegal
|
58%
|
| Tanzania
|
57%
|
| South Africa
|
45%
|
| Ethiopia
|
40%
|
Source: Pew Research Center's Spring 2015 Global Attitudes Survey - Q32
Developing countries vs developed countries
Awareness about climate change is higher in developed countries than in developing countries.
A large majority of people in Indonesia, Pakistan and Nigeria do not
know about climate change, particularly in Muslim majority countries.
There is often awareness about environmental changes in developing
countries, but the framework for understanding it is limited. In
developing and developed countries, people similarly believe that poor
countries have a responsibility to act on climate change. Since the 2009 Copenhagen summit, concern over climate change in wealthy countries has gone down. In 2009, 63% of people in OECD member states considered climate change to be "very serious" but by 2015, it had gone down to 48%.
Support for national leadership creating further action addressing
climate change has also gone down. Of the 21 countries surveyed in GlobeScan's
2015 survey, Canada, France, Spain and the UK are the only ones that
have the majority of the population desiring their leadership to take
further action to meet the emission targets set by the Paris climate accord.
While concern and desire for action has gone down in developed
countries, awareness over it is higher. Since 2000, twice as many people
will connect extreme weather events with human caused climate change.
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