G20 Peoples’ Climate Vote: Large majority back action
A huge poll of nearly 700,000 people, the G20 Peoples’ Climate Vote, shows public demand for climate action, according to a report published today by the UN Development Programme (UNDP) and the University of Oxford.
Without bold action from the G20, it will be impossible to keep global heating to 1.5C, to avert the worse impact of climate change. The world’s largest economies account 75% of global greenhouse gas[1] emissions.
The results showed for the first time the difference between children and adults’ levels of belief in climate change as a global emergency. Some 70% of under-18s surveyed subscribe to this view, compared with 65% of adults. The countries where under-18s were most supportive of this view, relative to adults, were Australia the US and India. The survey covered 18 of the G20 members, and included more than 302,000 under-18s.
Professor Stephen Fisher (left), from Oxford’s Department of Sociology, who was the lead academic researcher for the project, says, ‘Our findings show that younger people within the G20 demand more immediate and interventionist types of environmental policies from governments. As this generation comes of voting age, political leaders should not ignore the bolder expectations of this emerging electorate when it comes to their policymaking.’
