According to a survey by the UN Development Programme, 80 percent of people worldwide want stronger climate protection measures from governments

new York – The Peoples’ Climate Vote 2024, the largest standalone opinion poll on climate change, shows that 80 percent – ​​or four in five – of people worldwide want their governments to take stronger action to tackle the climate crisis.

Even more – 86 percent – ​​want their countries to put aside their geopolitical differences and work together on climate change. The level of consensus is particularly notable in the current global context of increasing conflict and the rise of nationalism.

The survey, conducted for the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) in collaboration with the University of Oxford (UK) and GeoPoll, asked 15 questions about climate change to over 73,000 people in 77 countries speaking 87 different languages. The questions were designed to help understand how people experience the impacts of climate change and what response they expect from world leaders. The 77 countries surveyed represent 87 percent of the world’s population.

“The people’s climate vote is loud and clear. Global citizens want their leaders to overcome their differences, act now and take bold action to address the climate crisis,” said Achim Steiner, head of UNDP. “The poll results – unprecedented in their scope – show a level of consensus that is truly astonishing. We urge politicians and decision-makers to take note, especially as countries develop their next round of climate pledges – or ‘nationally determined contributions’ under the Paris Agreement. This is an issue on which almost everyone, everywhere, agrees.”

Largest emitters demand stronger climate protection measures

According to the survey, twenty of the world’s largest greenhouse gas emitters support stronger climate protection measures. The majority opinion ranges from 66 percent in the USA and Russia to 67 percent in Germany, 73 percent in China, 77 percent in South Africa and India, 85 percent in Brazil, 88 percent in Iran and 93 percent in Italy.

In five major emitter countries (Australia, Canada, France, Germany and the United States), women were 10 to 17 percentage points more likely to support strengthening their country’s commitments. This difference was largest in Germany, where women were 17 percentage points more likely to support more climate protection than men (75 percent versus 58 percent).

Exit from the fossil fuel industry

In addition to a general call for bolder climate action, the poll shows that a global majority of 72 percent supports a rapid phase-out of fossil fuels. This applies to countries that are among the top 10 oil, coal and gas producers. This includes majorities ranging from 89 percent in Nigeria to 54 percent of the population in the United States.

Only 7 percent of people worldwide said their country should not make any changes at all.

Climate anxiety

People around the world reported being concerned about climate change. Globally, 56 percent said they think about it regularly, daily or weekly, including around 63 percent of people in least developed countries (LDCs).

More than half of people worldwide said they were more concerned about climate change than last year (53 percent). In the least developed countries, this figure was even higher (59 percent). On average, 71 percent of the nine small island developing states surveyed said they were more concerned about climate change than last year.

69 percent of people worldwide said that their important decisions, such as where they live or work, are affected by climate change. The proportion of those affected was higher in the least developed countries (74 percent), but significantly lower in Western and Northern Europe (52 percent) and North America (42 percent).

Prof Stephen Fisher, from the Department of Sociology at the University of Oxford, said: “A survey of this scale was a huge scientific undertaking. While maintaining a rigorous methodology, special efforts were made to include people from marginalised groups in the poorest parts of the world. This is some of the highest quality global data on public opinion on climate change currently available.”

Cassie Flynn, Global Director of Climate Change at UNDP, said: “As world leaders decide on the next round of commitments under the Paris Agreement to 2025, these results are irrefutable evidence that people everywhere support bold climate action. The Peoples’ Climate Vote has captured the voices of people everywhere – including those groups that are traditionally the hardest to consult. For example, people in nine of the 77 countries surveyed have never been consulted on climate change before. The next two years are one of the best chances we have as an international community to ensure that warming stays below 1.5°C. We stand ready to support policymakers to step up their efforts as they develop their climate action plans through our Climate Promise initiative.”

Under UNDP’s Climate Promise initiative, over 100 developing countries submitted improved NDCs during the second revision cycle – 91 percent of which increased their greenhouse gas emission reduction targets and 93 percent of which also strengthened their adaptation targets.

Full report: Download the full report here.

contact person

New York: Victor Garrido Delgado, [email protected]

Geneva: Sarah Bel, [email protected]

Notes for editors

The Peoples’ Climate Vote 2024 is the second edition of the global survey conducted by UNDP and Oxford University. The first Peoples’ Climate Vote was held in 2021 and surveyed people in 50 countries about ads in popular mobile gaming apps. The survey methodology for this edition is different from The Peoples’ Climate Vote 2021, so questions and answers in the two reports are not comparable.

The 2024 edition included 15 questions about how climate change affects people’s daily lives, how they feel about how climate change is being addressed in their countries, and what they want from the world. The results provide the most comprehensive public overview to date of how people feel about and respond to climate change.

The team from Oxford University was mainly involved in data processing and producing the statistical results. The survey was conducted by the international polling company GeoPoll through randomly selected mobile phone calls. The random selection meant that almost everyone with a phone in any country had the opportunity to participate, whereas in the previous survey participants needed a broadband connection. No one could participate without being randomly selected and no one could participate more than once.

The survey results were collected and processed by survey research experts at the University of Oxford, who weighted the sample to ensure it was representative of the age, gender and education profiles of the populations of the countries participating in the survey.

Over 10 percent (9,321 respondents) of the total sample were people who had never been to school. Of these, 1,241 were women over 60 who had never been to school. These groups are the most difficult to reach in surveys. In nine of the 77 countries surveyed, people had never been asked about climate change before. Under-18s were surveyed in countries where this was legal and feasible.

The country-level estimates above have margins of error of + or – 3 percentage points or less. The margin of error for SIDS and some regions is + or -1, and is even lower for large regions and global estimates. The global, regional and LDC figures are overall estimates, which is possible given the high population coverage of these groupings. The figures for SIDS are a population-weighted average of the nine SIDS examined.

For more information on the Peoples’ Climate Vote, including global results, visit http://peoplesclimate.vote/

United Nations Development Programme (UNDP)

UNDP is the leading United Nations agency working to end the injustices of poverty, inequality and climate change. Working with our broad network of experts and partners in 170 countries, we help nations develop integrated, lasting solutions for people and planet.

Department of Sociology, University of Oxford

Oxford Sociology leads the way in ground-breaking empirical research that spans the full spectrum of the social world. We apply a wide range of rigorous methods to real-world problems to address the most pressing societal challenges of our time. Our commitment to collaborative research ensures that our researchers have the freedom to cross disciplinary boundaries, foster international partnerships, and conduct innovative research. Some of the topics our researchers are currently working on include social inequality, demography, political sociology, gender and family, cybercrime and justice, computational social science, and the COVID-19 pandemic.