From Fossil Fuel Phase Down to Protection of Nature, 80% of People Globally Demand More Action in Largest Climate Survey

The People’s Climate Vote is the word’s most extensive public survey on climate change, engaging over 73,000 people across 77 countries.

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Against a backdrop of historic heat and widespread climate impacts, human’s perspective on climate change is shifting, with an increasing number of people globally demanding more adaptation and mitigation action, a new comperehensive global survey has revealed.

Carried out by the UN Development Programme (UNDP) and the University of Oxford, the second edition of the People’s Climate Vote published last week found that an overwhelming majority of people globally are now worried about how climate change will affect their livelihoods and mental health.

Conducted in 87 languages, the survey engaged over 73,000 people from different age groups, cultural and geographical backgrounds across 77 countries, representing 87% of the world’s population.

The survey comes as a pivotal time. 2024 is the biggest global election year of all time, with some 4 billion people – roughly half of the human population – eligible to vote.

An average of 43% of people spanning 89% of countries surveyed said their government has had the biggest impact addressing the climate crisis compared to big businesses (14%), the United Nations (13%), and environmental activists and campaigners (12%).

Four in every five people surveyed (80%) want their countries to do more on climate change. This is particularly true for people living in climate vulnerable regions, with 89% of people living in Least Developed Countries (LDCs) saying they want their country to strenghten its commitments to address the climate crisis. Poor and developing countries historically bear the most brunt despite contributing the least to planet-warming emissions. In contrast, G20 economies – the largest economies in the world – are responsible for about 75-80% of global greenhouse gas emissions.

About 72% of the survey’s participants said they want their country to rapidly move away from planet-warming fossil fuels and embrace clean energy. The majority of people living in the world’s ten largest producers of oil, coal, and gas support a fast transition to renewable energy sources, with the expection of Iraq (43%) and Russia (16%).

The burning of coal, natural gas, and oil for electricity and heat is the single-largest source of global greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions, the primary drivers of global warming by trapping heat in the atmosphere and raising Earth’s surface temperature. Global fossil fuel consumption has more than doubled in the last 50 years, as countries around the world aim to improve their standards of living and economic output. In 2023, all three of the most potent GHGs – carbon dioxide (CO2), methane, and nitrous oxide – reached record highs.

Climate scientists agree that climate change is accelerating faster than expected and affecting all corners of the world.

Temperatures in May were the highest ever recorded for that month, marking one year of consecutive record-breaking temperatures after 2023 went down in history as the hottest year on record. May was also 1.52C above the 1850-1900 pre-industrial average, marking the 11th consecutive month that temperatures breached the 1.5C global warming threshold set in the Paris Agreement. While this does not signal a permanent breach of the critical limit, which scientists say is measured over decades, it sends a clear warning to humanity that we are approaching the point of no return much faster than expected.

As the impacts of a changing climate become more apparent, nearly eight in ten or 78% of people demand more protection from extreme weaher events, which include heatwaves, droughts, heavy downpoars, floods, tropical cyclones, and tornatoes, and 81% want more action on nature.

Many countries endured some of the worst extreme weather events in history in the last few years – from the most destructive wildfire season on record in Canada and Australia to devastating floods in Libya – which experts say were made up to 50 times more likely and intense by climate change – and Pakistan, where thousands of people died and millions were displaced.

An overwhelming majority of people (79%) also said they want richer countries to support poorer nations to address climate change. The latter have for decades demanded climate finance and compensation for the economic, social, and cultural losses and damages caused by anthropogenic climate change – also known as “loss and damage.”

It was only two year ago – during the UN COP27 climate summit in Egypy – that countries finally reached a deal to set up a loss and damage fund to help developing countries deal with the harm caused by global warming. However, to date, total commitments have only amounted to US$661 million, less than 0.2% of the economic and non-economic losses developing countries face every year from global warming, estimated at at least $400 billion per year and expected to grow as the crisis intensifies.