Global surveys show people’s growing concern about climate change

Governments across the globe increasingly put action to tackle climate change at the top of their agenda. People’s opinions, whether for or against action on pressing issues such as climate change, play a crucial role in political mobilisation, and consequentially in policy actions. Understanding how people in various parts of the world perceive climate change and the associated urgency helps gauge global political will to tackle climate change and provides crucial background information on regional hurdles to or drivers of a climate-friendly transition.

For a global challenge that demands a globally coordinated response, people’s opinions about local, national and international climate politics and policies are relevant. Global surveys about climate change also provide a rare opportunity to understand how various factors, such as geographical location, education or income level, come into play to build people’s perceptions.

Surveys reviewed in this factsheet indicate that people generally agree that climate change is happening, and it is one of the most pressing concerns across the globe. At the same time, a stark difference of opinions about how to distribute responsibilities among people from various parts of the world emerges. This clash of opinions mirrors the conflict between advanced and developing economies in international climate politics. The developing economies, which tend to be more vulnerable to the adverse impacts of climate change, demand that the industrially advanced countries, which have historically contributed a higher share of global emissions, take more responsibility and support them in their climate change-related transition.

People across the world are confronted with the changing climate through their personal exposure to unusual and extreme weather patterns, eroding ecosystems or increased frequency of natural disasters. A growing number of climate change-driven incidents is shaping how people perceive climate change and the related threats. Recurring global polls about climate change provide a unique opportunity to understand how people’s points of view evolve.

Pew Research Center’s annual Global Attitudes survey shows that the share of people across the world who consider climate change a “major threat” has been steadily growing. In 2014, 54 percent (average of all surveyed countries) were of this opinion. The average jumped to 62 percent in 2017 and to 71 percent in 2022, showcasing the rapid change in people’s perceptions. The group of countries surveyed in these three years varied slightly, influencing the average of each year. 56 percent of people globally told the UNDP's Peoples' Climate Vote they were thinking about climate change regularly, i.e. daily or weekly. More than half of people globally said they were more worried than last year about climate change.

The Ipsos Global Trends survey, which is conducted at the beginning of each year, likewise reveal the changing perceptions of climate change.

At an average 80 percent, respondents in 50 countries to the 2023 Global Trends survey agreed that “We are heading towards an environmental disaster unless we change our habits quickly.“ The polls indicate that people in developing economies are more concerned about environmental degradation, including the effects of climate change. Over 90 percent of respondents from Indonesia, Zambia and Vietnam expressed concern.

The 2023 Global Trends survey also provides granular insights into how threat perception varies across socio-demographic groups. Overall, the survey shows that age, employment status and gender do not drastically influence how threat is perceived. Respondents with higher education and with higher income are slightly more concerned.

Overall, a majority of people are demanding climate action. On average, 80 percent of people in each country participating in the OECD’s 2022 survey focused on international attitudes towards climate policies said that “their country should fight climate change.“ Similarly, on average, 66 percent of people in 29 countries in the 2023 Ipsos Earth Day poll agreed that “their country should do more in the fight against climate change.“

However, a different picture emerges when the respondents are asked for opinions about their country's responsibility and efforts to tackle climate change from an international perspective.

The 2023 Ipsos Earth Day poll asked respondents in 29 countries whether “their country is being asked to sacrifice too much to tackle climate change.” A significant share of respondents in both developed economies (an average of 30% in the 17 developed countries surveyed) and developing economies (an average of 38% in the 12 countries surveyed) share this sentiment.

On average, 70 percent of respondents in the 29 countries surveyed in the 2023 Ipsos Earth Day poll overwhelmingly agreed that the “developed countries should do more to combat climate change.” While support for the above statement was the lowest in developed economies, such as Canada (62%), the Netherlands (61%), the United States (58%) or Japan (58%), the majority of respondents in all the countries surveyed agreed to this statement.

The responses to the Open Society Foundation's survey question of whether “high-income countries should take the lead in reducing global greenhouse emissions” matched those of the Earth Day survey. With a global country average of 79 percent, respondents acknowledged the developed economies’ responsibilities. Support here was the lowest – 59 percent – in Germany.

While there is an overwhelming consensus that the industrialised economies should pay more and take the lead in fighting climate change, people still want all countries to contribute to these efforts. When asked “Which countries do you think should be paying to reduce carbon emissions?” in the International Monetary Fund’s Public Perceptions of Climate Mitigation Policies survey, more than 50 percent of respondents in all 28 countries surveyed chose “all countries.” The global average of countries in support of the “all countries” option stood at 64 percent against an average 20 percent for “only rich countries.” In the same survey, there was significantly higher support (47%) for the “countries paying to reduce carbon emissions based on their current emissions” option than for the “countries paying to reduce carbon emissions based on their past emissions” option (32%).

Edelman Trust Barometer

Since 2000, Edelman, a global public relations and marketing consultancy firm, has studied trust in four pillars of society: government, business, media and civil society. The Edelman Trust Barometer is one of the rare recurring surveys that already has more than 20 editions. In its  2016 edition, ‘climate change/global warming’ appeared for the first time as a societal issue. But at the time, it was not considered the most important issue in any of the 28 countries participating in the survey. Since 2020, climate change-related questions have regularly featured in the Edelman Trust Barometer, reflecting the growing importance of the issue. Since 2021, the Barometer also started conducting a yearly survey focused on climate change. The 2023 survey found a significant reduction in trust in  government, business, media and civil society “to do the right thing when it comes to climate change,” with media seeing the largest drop (-9pp).

The same survey reveals that people have the lowest level of trust in climate information coming from government leaders, CEOs, and journalists. Most respondents trust scientific experts, but the overall level of trust declined.

Surveys by Reuters Institute for the Study of Journalism

Since 2022, the Oxford Climate Journalism Network (OCJN), which is part of the Reuters Institute for the Study of Journalism, is conducting yearly surveys to understand patterns in climate change news consumption across the world. The surveys focus on the same eight countries from four continents.

The 2023 survey finds that on average more than half (55%) of the respondents in each country accessed climate change news and information on a weekly basis. There is a noticeable variation among the surveyed countries: the share varies from less than half in India (44%) to almost two-thirds in Germany (65%). The share of people regularly accessing climate change news rose in every country in 2023 except in Pakistan.

The same survey highlights that on average, half of the people in the surveyed countries trust news media as a source of climate news. Compared to 2022, on average, there is only a slight reduction in trust in news media, but trust significantly dropped in Germany (-11 pp) and the UK (-6pp).

The survey found a widespread concern about general misinformation. On average, 82 percent of people expressed concern in each of the countries. A very similar picture emerges when it comes to climate information. On average, 27 percent of people in each surveyed country “think they saw false or misleading information” about it in the last week. In India, France, the UK and Germany, people said they observed more misinformation about climate change than about politics or government policies.

The Reuters Institute for the Study of Journalism conducts a yearly global survey to understand how digital news are being consumed across the world. In the 2023 YouGov survey across 46 countries for the institute, a significant share of news consumers said they were relying on various social media platforms to access news about climate change. Thirty-seven percent of Twitter and Instagram users, and 36, 35, 33 and 28 percent of YouTube, Facebook, TikTok and Snapchat users, respectively, said that they “pay close attention to climate change-related news” on these platforms.