UNDP’s poll finds public opinion in support of wide ranging climate action

NEW DELHI: A survey titled People’s Climate Vote, organised by the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) and the University of Oxford, found major support for need for broad climate policies beyond the current state of play. The world’s biggest ever survey of public opinion on climate change engaged 1.22 million people from around 50 countries. The respondents were asked if they believed that climate change was a global emergency and whether they supported eighteen key climate policies across six areas: economy, energy, transport, food & farms, nature and protecting people.

Achim Steiner, UNDP Administrator, said that the results of the survey clearly illustrate that urgent climate action has broad support amongst people around the globe, across nationalities, age, gender and education level. Adding further, he said that more than everything, the survey reveals how people want their policymakers to tackle the crisis urgently and cues towards the ways in which countries can move forward with public support as the world works together to tackle this enormous challenge.

Prof Stephen Fisher, Department of Sociology, University of Oxford, said that the recognition of the climate emergency is much more widespread than thought and most people clearly want a strong and wide-ranging policy response. The results are to be shared with the governments during the negotiations scheduled at UN Climate Summit in November in Glasgow, United Kingdom.