Erick Burgueño Salas
Research expert covering climate change and the water industry
Get in touch with us nowOpinion on actions against climate change
Public opinions on the impacts of small actions on reducing greenhouse gas emissions vary worldwide. In 2023, almost 40 percent of respondents stated that switching to purchasing renewable electricity will have the most impact on reducing emissions. By contrast, only eight percent said having a vegan diet would have the same effect.Even if public concern and actions are palpable, an average of 22 percent of global respondents in 2023 believed there was no point in changing their behavior to tackle climate change because it would not make any difference.
Several plans could be taken to incentivize more action against climate change. 38 percent of people listed financial incentives or tax cuts as a good encouragement to take more action, such as allowing themselves to make more environmentally friendly purchases.
Reaction to media coverage
Every day, people get in contact with newsfeeds regarding climate change, its effects, and the actions taken to mitigate it. Therefore, news organizations have become one of the main trusted sources of information about climate change around the world. Even if the public tends to trust the media on such matters, there are still several obstacles to misinformation and fake news. For instance, around 25 percent of respondents in the U.S. stated they had recently encountered online information about climate change they believed to be false.Furthermore, among the ocean of information, some audiences avoid the topic entirely in their news intake. According to a global survey on climate change news consumption, around 43 percent of people aged 18 to 44 in India stated that they try to avoid climate change news.
