Globally representative evidence on the actual and perceived support for climate action

2024/02/09 by Peter Andre, Teodora Boneva, Felix Chopra +1 · 1 voice · 15 citations
Economics, Econometrics and Finance · Environmental Science · Social Sciences · #Climate Change Communication and Perception #Energy, Environment, Economic Growth #Environmental Education and Sustainability

paper · pdf · doi:10.1038/s41558-024-01925-3

openalex publication_date 2024/02/09 · openalex created_date 2025/10/10 · openalex updated_date 2026/08/01

Abstract

Abstract Mitigating climate change necessitates global cooperation, yet global data on individuals’ willingness to act remain scarce. In this study, we conducted a representative survey across 125 countries, interviewing nearly 130,000 individuals. Our findings reveal widespread support for climate action. Notably, 69% of the global population expresses a willingness to contribute 1% of their personal income, 86% endorse pro-climate social norms and 89% demand intensified political action. Countries facing heightened vulnerability to climate change show a particularly high willingness to contribute. Despite these encouraging statistics, we document that the world is in a state of pluralistic ignorance, wherein individuals around the globe systematically underestimate the willingness of their fellow citizens to act. This perception gap, combined with individuals showing conditionally cooperative behaviour, poses challenges to further climate action. Therefore, raising awareness about the broad global support for climate action becomes critically important in promoting a unified response to climate change.

Citations

• Global non-linear effect of temperature on economic production
• The Shared Socioeconomic Pathways and their energy, land use, and greenhouse gas emissions implications: An overview
• Beliefs about Climate Beliefs: The Importance of Second-Order Opinions for Climate Politics
• Dimensions and Dynamics of National Culture: Synthesizing Hofstede With Inglehart
• Americans experience a false social reality by underestimating popular climate policy support by nearly half
• Scaling Up Change: A Critical Review and Practical Guide to Harnessing Social Norms for Climate Action
• The Political Economics of Green Transitions

Cited by

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• Assessing How Fact‐Checks Influence Accuracy and Consensus Judgments: Evidence From the Olympics
• United Nations Environment Assembly attendees underestimate public willingness to contribute to climate action
• Theorising unconventional climate advocates and their relationship to the environmental movement
• Reasonable or radical? First-order, second-order, and meta-stereotypes of different climate activists among the German public and climate activists
• The Climate-Health Communication Gap: Connecting the Dots to Drive Climate Health Action
• The effect of disruptive protests on public opinion
• Public support for climate action is underestimated in the German political domain
• Behavioral interventions motivate action to address climate change
• The Activist’s Trade-Off: Climate Disruption Buys Salience at a Cost

Discussions

• Take heart! Preventing and mitigating climate change can seem an insurmountable goal, but humans around the global are remarkably united behind this priority. Check out https://doi.org/10.1038/s41558- [bsky, 0 points, 0 comments]