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Publics Want More Government Action on Climate Change: Global Poll

Posted on: Wednesday, 29 July 2009, 16:00 CDT

COLLEGE PARK, Md., July 29 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- A new WorldPublicOpinion.org poll of 19 nations from around the world finds that majorities in 15 think their government should put a higher priority on addressing climate change than it does now. This includes the largest greenhouse gas emitters: China (62% want more action), the U.S. (52%), and Russia (56%).

In all but three nations, most people think their government should give climate change a relatively high priority (6-10 on a 0-10 scale: on average 7.33). However in only four nations do most people think that is what their government is doing.

The poll also found that people tend to underestimate how high a priority their fellow citizens place on addressing climate change, with twice as many people saying they are above average than saying they are below average.

WorldPublicOpinion.org conducted the poll of 18,578 respondents in 19 nations that comprise 60 percent of the world's population. This includes most of the largest nations -- China, India, the United States, Indonesia, Nigeria, and Russia -- as well as Mexico, Chile, Germany, Great Britain, France, Poland, Ukraine, Kenya, Egypt, Turkey, Iraq, the Palestinian territories, and South Korea. Polling was also conducted in Taiwan, Hong Kong and Macau.

In most nations, people have a tendency to underestimate how high other people in their country want to prioritize climate change. Respondents were asked, "What is your guess on how high a priority the average person in [our country] thinks the government should place on addressing climate change?"

Across all nations, the average person is perceived as wanting a priority of 6.42 for climate change -- though the priority actually desired on average across all nations is a higher 7.33.

"Clearly we have a skew in how people perceive each other, a kind of Lake Wobegon effect. People tend to think they are above average," comments Steven Kull.

WorldPublicOpinion.org, a collaborative project involving research centers from around the world, is managed by the Program on International Policy Attitudes (PIPA) at the University of Maryland. The margins of error range from +/-3 to 4 percentage points. The surveys were conducted across the different nations between April 4 and July 9, 2009.

Funding for this project was provided by the Rockefeller Brothers Fund and the Calvert Foundation.

For more information, please visit www.worldpublicopinion.org.

SOURCE Program on International Policy Attitudes (PIPA) at the University of Maryland

Source: PR Newswire

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