New York, January 27 – It is called “People’s Climate Vote” because two-thirds of over 1.2 million people surveyed showed that they view climate change as a global emergency that demands urgent action, the UN Development Program (UNDP) said of the biggest public opinion yet conducted that covered 50 countries with over half of the world population.
In Washington, US President Joe Biden decided that the US will host a climate meeting on April 22 when he signed executive orders putting measures to fight climate change as an essential element in the US foreign policy. The move also reaffirmed and implemented Biden’s decision to provide US leadership on climate issues.
Biden’s measures to fight climate change included freezing new oil and gas leases on federal lands and doubling offshore wind-produced energy by 2030.
“Today is climate day at the White House,” Biden said on January 27. “We have already waited too long. And we can’t wait any longer.” He insisted that the US “must lead” in the global efforts to fight climate change.
Achim Steiner, the UNDP administrator said in a news release announcing the poll results: “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.”
“From climate-friendly farming to protecting nature and investing in a green recovery from Covid-19, the survey brings the voice of the people to the forefront of the climate debate. It signals ways in which countries can move forward with public support as we work together to tackle this enormous challenge,” Steiner said.
UNDP said its public opinion poll carried out jointly with the University of Oxford was the “biggest survey ever” on climate change as a preparation for negotiations at the 26th session of Conference of the Parties to the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC).
The survey aimed at finding out whether climate change has become a global emergency and whether respondents support 18 key climate policies across six action areas: economy, energy, transport, food and farms, nature, and protecting people.
People want broad climate policies, the news release said (the following is part of the news release):
The results showed that people supported “broad climate policies”, beyond the current situation, UNDP said.
For instance, in eight of the ten survey countries with the highest emissions from the power sector, majority backed more renewable energy. In four out of five countries with the highest emissions from land-use change and enough data on policy preferences, the majority supported conserving forests and land. Nine out of ten of the countries with the most urbanized populations backed more use of clean electric cars and buses, or bicycles.
The survey also found a direct link between a person’s level of education and their desire for climate action, according to UNDP.
There was very high recognition of the climate emergency among those who had attended university or college in all countries, from lower-income countries such as Bhutan (82 per cent) and Democratic Republic of the Congo (82 per cent), to wealthy countries like France (87 per cent) and Japan (82 per cent).
Findings also revealed that while younger people (under 18) were more likely to say climate change is an emergency, other age groups were not far behind, with 65 per cent aged 18-35; 66 per cent aged 36-59; and 58 per cent over 60, expressing affirmation.
“[This] illustrated how widely held this view has become,” said UNDP.
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