TRANSCRIPT
A new report has found 80 per cent of people globally want countries to strengthen their commitment on the climate crisis.
The Peoples’ Climate Vote is the world’s largest standalone public opinion survey on climate change, a collaboration between the United Nations and the University of Oxford.
UN Development Program global chief for climate, Cassie Flynn, says people are calling for tougher policies to tackle the climate crisis.
She says it's very clear people all over the world, in every single country, are living the climate crisis.
"Globally, over half of people said they think about the climate crisis either daily or weekly. And two thirds said that they incorporate decisions around their lives: where they live, where they work, what they buy, by taking into account the climate crisis. People are unafraid of bold climate policies. Seventy two percent of people globally said that they want to see the transition away from fossil fuels as quickly as possible, and this includes populations of the 10 biggest producers of coal, oil, and gas.”
Launched in 2021, the survey has spoken to people across 77 countries, representing 87 per cent of the world's population through Computer Assisted Telephone Interviewing.
In the past year, leading scientific bodies have warned climate change is accelerating faster than expected.
Now, this report has found there's increasing concern about climate change in Least Developed Countries compared to people in G20 countries.
It found in Australia, 51 per cent of people say they're more worried about climate change than they were last year.
It comes after Opposition leader Peter Dutton has refused to commit to 2030 emission reduction targets, confirming he won't announce the Coalition’s proposed target before the election.
He says the 43 per cent carbon emission reduction by 2030 target is unachievable.
"The government here is not going to meet its target. We've got a responsible pathway to meet our net zero by 2050 obligation, but we can't destroy the economy in the process. There are a lot of economists talking about our economy going into a recession by the end of this calendar year. We had anaemic growth in the last quarter. When you speak to restaurateurs, when you speak to retailers, people are keeping their hands in their pockets. That is as a result of inflation, which is high, it's sticky, and in part it's because of the Prime Minister's renewables only energy policy."
The report has also found Australia is in the top 5 countries where the proportion of women who wanted stronger climate commitments was larger than men.
Climate Council of Australia Senior Researcher Dr Wesley Morgan says that's consistent with other findings.
"It is consistent with what we know because there are gender dynamics in our communities. So it's often women who are leading the response when there are disasters in communities in Australia. And so it's not an accident that it's women who are concerned about these impacts that they're seeing around them. So we're seeing people who have been made homeless by flooding. We've seen people who've been made homeless by fires in Australia, and so that's not a surprising result."
The polling has found 69 per cent of Australians support a quick energy transition from coal and gas producers to renewable energy.
Mr Morgan says it's clear Australians are very supportive of clean energy.
"So at the moment, one in three households in Australia have installed rooftop solar. So they're just getting on with it. They're enjoying the benefits of clean energy at a household level. At the national level, 40% of our main national electricity grid is already clean energy, so wind, solar, and storage. And we're headed towards 80 per cent by the end of this decade for clean energy in our national energy grid. So what needs to happen, we need to, as quickly as possible, close our old coal fire power plants that are being run down."
The UN's Cassie Flynn says it's time for world leaders to step up.
“Our goal, again, is to really bring the voice of people to this debate, to be able to show world leaders that people are unified even when they may have differences on many things around the world. And we're on the cusp of some of these major decisions on climate crisis at the global, at the national, regional and sub national levels. And it's important at this moment that world leaders do listen to this unified message.”
