Australians are among the most skeptical people in the world that climate change is caused by humans and that the cost of tackling it will be less than its effects, according to a poll in 26 countries.
Just 60 per cent of Australians agree that climate change is caused by humans, a six percentage point drop from the previous poll 18 months earlier and behind the global average of 73%, according to results from a French polling firm. of Elabe.
The poll, commissioned by global waste and recycling company Veolia, covers countries that represent 67% of global greenhouse gas emissions, including the US, UK, India, China and Japan.
French polling results suggest higher levels of climate change denial, skepticism and uncertainty than surveys conducted in Australia alone, although the methods and questions are not directly comparable.
Only 52% of Australians – the lowest percentage of any country – thought “the costs caused by the damage associated with climate damage and pollution will be greater than the investment required for the ecological transformation of our communities”.
On average, 75% of people worldwide agree with the World Health Organization that climate change is the biggest health threat facing humanity, compared to just 63% of Australians.
Australia was following a global trend of rising climate deniers, the poll said, with half of all countries having between 26% and 43% of people disputing whether humans are responsible for global warming or not.
The poll found 78% of Australians agreed climate disruption is happening, compared to 89% globally. Only Ivorians had lower approval ratings than Australians, according to the poll.
One Nation voters were more skeptical than conservative or far-right voters in any country, the poll said, with just 31% accepting climate disruption was caused by humans.
About 29,500 people were interviewed around the world, including 1,000 people from Australia who were interviewed in November 2023 who were representative of age, gender income and is residence.
Richard Kirkman, chief executive of Veolia in Australia, said the survey results suggested “we need to do more work in telling the story about the truth”.
“We do not have the full support of the people and we do not have political support. We will work hard in our communications because many of the actions that people want to take, regardless of climate change, such as generating electricity with solar panels means less dust in the air and less pollution than from burning coal. Power station.”
Dr Graham Bradley, a research fellow at Griffith University who has led his annual climate action survey of more than 4,000 people, questioned whether the term “climate disturbance” was commonly understood. That was a problem that could skew the results, he said.
The Griffith Climate Survey conducted in 2023 found 82% of Australians agreed the climate is changing. He said about a quarter of people either denied that climate change was happening or did not believe that humans were causing it.
On concerns about climate change, he said Australians were similar to Americans in their views “but somewhat behind most European countries”.
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He said Australians were also behind the views of scientists on the causes of climate change and around 20% of Australians did not believe what scientists told them.
The Australia Institute, a progressive policy think tank, has conducted its annual National Climate Survey since 2012.
In 2022, the last time the institute asked people about the causes of climate change, 70% of people agreed that it was down to human activity.
Polly Hemming, director of the institute’s climate and energy programme, said they no longer asked people their views on the causes of climate change in an attempt to avoid any damage from “staying in the conversation”.
He said there were a “crazy” number of Australians who said they were already feeling the effects of climate change. The number of people who had voted for climate independents in the last federal election was further evidence that Australians wanted action, he said.
As with the French poll, he said young people were more likely to follow scientific evidence that humans were causing climate change.
The rise of “conspiracy theories and attacks on our scientific institutions” may affect some people, Hemming said.
But he added that the political message on the urgency of climate change was missing from the main parties.
“Compare the way politicians talk about national security or war or the economy of the budget deficit,” he said.
“They put more emotion and urgency into those issues than they do with the climate crisis. Our surveys say people care and want action, but it doesn’t show in a lot of media rhetoric or from our leaders or in action from industry.
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