Resumé: With 1.2 million respondents, the Peoples’ Climate Vote is the largest survey of public opinion on climate change ever conducted. Using a new and unconventional approach to polling, results span 50 countries1 covering 56% of the world’s population. Part of by the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP), launched in 2020. Download report .
Published 15. August – Edited by Editorial Team – Webeditor: Lucas Kanno Kastberg
With 1.2 million respondents, the Peoples’ Climate Vote is the largest survey of public opinion on climate change ever conducted. Using a new and unconventional approach to polling, results span 50 countries1 covering 56% of the world’s population. Poll questions were distributed through advertisements in mobile game apps in 17 languages, which resulted in a huge, unique, and random sample of people of all genders, ages, and educational backgrounds.
Connection between the public and policymakers
The Peoples’ Climate Vote is a pillar of the Mission 1.5 campaign launched in 2020 by the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) to educate people about climate change solutions and ask them about the actions that they think governments should take. The aim of the Peoples’ Climate Vote was to connect the public to policymakers – and to provide the latter with reliable information on whether people considered climate change an emergency, and how they would like their countries to respond.
A clear and convincing call
Even though the survey was conducted during the COVID-19 crisis, there was still widespread recognition of climate change as a global emergency in every country surveyed. Over all 50 countries, 64% of people said that climate change was an emergency – presenting a clear and convincing call for decision-makers to step up on ambition.
• The highest level of support was in SIDS (74%), followed by high-income countries (72%), middle-income countries (62%), then LDCs (58%).
• Regionally, the proportion of people who said climate change is a global emergency had a high level of support everywhere – in Western Europe and North America (72%), Eastern Europe and Central Asia (65%), Arab States (64%), Latin America and Caribbean (63%), Asia and Pacific (63%), and Sub-Saharan Africa (61%).
• Of the people that said climate change is a global emergency, 59% said that the world should do everything necessary and urgently in response. Meanwhile 20% said we should act slowly, while 10% percent of people thought the world is already doing enough.
Most popular issues
Respondents were asked which policies – out of a total of 18 that covered energy, economy, transportation, food and farms, nature, and protecting people from climate impacts – that governments should enact to address the climate emergency. Four climate policies emerged as the most popular globally:
1. Conservation of forests and land (54% public support);
2. Solar, wind and renewable power (53%);
3. Climate-friendly farming techniques (52%); and
4. Investing more in green businesses and jobs (50%).
Download full report:
UNDP-Oxford-Peoples-Climate-Vote-Results.pdf