A clear public mandate for climate action
ACCORDING to a global survey published this week, four out of every five people worldwide consider climate change a critical concern and want their governments to expand and accelerate their efforts to fight it. This is a clear public mandate for climate action, and while we are not surprised by the results, we welcome them and believe that they offer some clear directions for government and the public alike.
The survey was conducted under the supervision of the United Nations Development Program (UNDP), in partnership with Oxford University and GeoPoll, and had more than 75,000 respondents in 77 countries; the sample represents about 87 percent of the world population and had to be translated into 87 different languages. The survey results were published on Thursday.
The key finding was that a majority of people, about 80 percent of the global population on average, want governments to do more to address climate change. The percentage of people with this view was highest in developing countries (89 percent), but also a strong majority in the wealthier
Group of 20 nations (76 percent). The results highlighted that the world’s two biggest greenhouse gas emitters, China and the United
States, respectively, also had a majority of respondents favoring more climate action,
73 percent in China and 66 percent in the US.
Other key findings were that a majority of people worldwide, about 53 percent, said they were more worried about climate change this year than last year, and that more than two-thirds, about 69 percent, felt that climate change has impacted their life decisions, such as where to live or what to buy. In addition, more than 80 percent of respondents said that they wanted schools in their countries to do more to teach students about climate change.
There are several takeaways from these results. One not insignificant and perhaps encouraging revelation is that efforts by those who, either from sheer ignorance or obstructionist intentions, continue to spread disinformation to maintain the pretense that the fact of climate change is false or even at all uncertain have utterly failed. People may disagree on the details of addressing climate change, but they are clearly in complete accord that it does, in fact, need to be addressed.
The second clear implication from the survey results is that governments and those aspiring for public office must include climate action in their policy aims. In one respect, this should be encouraging to government leaders. The Marcos administration, for example, has done a credible job, particularly in comparison with the previous administration, of making climate action a key policy priority, although there is much room for improvement. The public sentiment in favor of more climate action should reassure our current leaders that expanding efforts in ways they might see as taking risks will almost certainly be viewed favorably.
The third takeaway, as we see it, is something that was highlighted by UNDP Administrator Achim Steiner, and that is that public sentiment is one thing, but public action is quite another. We must keep in mind that while governments bear the responsibility to lead climate action, governments are not changing the climate for the worse, societies are. To illustrate with an example, an executive of one of the Philippines’ leading energy firms pointed out that they only generate and sell the electricity that is demanded. Any effort toward “energy transition,” which is a key focus of climate mitigation objectives all over the world, must address both sides of the equation if we are to have any hope that it will be successful.
That demand comes from us, as ordinary citizens and businesses. Demanding that energy — or for that matter, transportation, other kinds of public services, the goods we buy — be more “sustainable” without our being willing to participate in the effort and use resources less wastefully is like demanding that a bucket with a hole in it be kept full of water. In order for that to be sustainable, we need to fix the hole. In order for the climate action we demand to be effective, we need to learn ways in which we can reduce our individual impacts on the climate and practice them.
Keep in mind that while governments bear the responsibility to lead climate action, governments are not changing the climate for the worse, societies are.