Governments around the world are increasingly making tackling climate change a top priority. Whether they are for or against addressing a pressing issue like climate change, people's opinions play a key role in political mobilization and, ultimately, policy action. Understanding how people around the world perceive climate change and its urgency helps gauge the global political will to address climate change and provides important context about local obstacles and drivers to a climate-friendly transition.
People's opinions on local, national and international climate policies and policies are important for a global challenge that requires a globally coordinated response. A global survey on climate change also provides a valuable opportunity to understand how different factors such as geographic location, education and income level influence the formation of people's perceptions.
The surveys reviewed in this fact sheet show that people generally agree that climate change is happening and that it is one of the most pressing concerns around the world. At the same time, significant differences of opinion emerge among people in different parts of the world about how responsibility should be shared. This clash of opinions reflects the conflict between developed and developing countries in international climate policy. Developing countries, which tend to be more vulnerable to the adverse effects of climate change, want industrialized countries, which have historically accounted for a larger share of global emissions, to take on more responsibility and support in the climate change transition.
