When The Guardian, Agence France-Presse, and dozens more of the world’s leading news organizations began reporting the 89% story in April, it was because new peer-reviewed science had affirmed a potentially game-changing fact: Eighty to 89% of the world’s people think their governments should “do more” to tackle climate change. At a time when many elections are decided by a tiny margin and a 60% result is routinely labeled a “landslide,” this 80 to 89% tally represents an extraordinary popular mandate that extends across partisan divides and national borders. And it runs counter to most media narratives about climate change, which is that it’s a deeply polarized issue, evenly split.
More evidence of this popular mandate keeps emerging. This week, the European Commission released the latest issue of the Eurobarometer, which has been surveying the beliefs of European Union residents since the EU’s founding in 1993. Across the EU’s 27 member states, 85% of people said climate change is “a serious problem” and tackling it “should be a priority.” Two out of three people (67%) said their national government was “not doing enough.” The survey also contradicted the notion that, despite such stated support, climate is not a priority for voters. People in most EU countries ranked climate change among the top three problems facing humanity — tied with “the economic situation” and trailing only “armed conflict” and “poverty.”
Earlier in June, still more evidence came from the firm Dynata, which does market research for private and public sector clients. Commissioned by the nonprofits Oxfam International and Greenpeace International, the survey gathered opinions from 13 countries across the world’s biggest economies and the Global South. Dynata too found that eight out of 10 people are disappointed with their government’s response to climate change. The specific wording of Dynata’s questions put an extra twist on that popular discontent: Three out of four people (77%) said they’d be “more willing to support a political candidate who prioritizes taxing the super-rich and polluting companies like oil, gas, and coal companies.”
If climate change can, wrongly, seem like a polarized issue, it’s because it is somewhat polarizing in the US, which wields outsized influence on the global climate discourse. A survey of 23 countries representing 70% of the world’s population and conducted by the nonprofit Potential Energy in collaboration with the Yale Program on Climate Change Communication found that 71% of people agreed with the statement “I support immediate action by the government to address climate change.” That percentage drops to 61% in the US, which has “four times the polarization of the average country.”
As the next phase of Covering Climate Now’s 89 Percent Project rolls out in the coming weeks, these findings invite journalists everywhere to recognize the overwhelming silent majority of people who want action, even as political leaders at COP30 and beyond will be making life-and-death decisions about the future trajectory of climate change. As we approach this opportunity, here’s one last data point from the Eurobarometer survey: “Just over half (52%) of EU citizens don’t think the traditional media from their country provides clear information on climate change and its causes and impacts.” New data is telling us it’s time for that to change.
From Us
CCNow Newsmaker Interview: Sheldon Whitehouse. On Tuesday, July 8, CCNow partners NBC News, Bloomberg Green, and Agence France-Presse will jointly interview US senator Sheldon Whitehouse, a Democrat and noted climate hawk from Rhode Island. The interview comes on the occasion of Whitehouse’s 300th “Time To Wake Up” speech, which he’ll deliver on the Senate floor on Wednesday, July 9. A story by CCNow executive director Mark Hertsgaard will be available for all CCNow partners to co-publish. Stay tuned for more information next week!
Talking Shop: Social media strategies. On Tuesday, July 8, join CCNow for a webinar about how journalists can use social media to boost the impact of their climate reporting. Panelists will include Ginger Zee of ABC News and Dr. Waqas Ejaz of the Oxford Climate Journalism Network. CCNow’s Theresa Riley will moderate. Learn more and register.
Quote of the Week
“Climate is our biggest war. Climate is here for the next 100 years. We need to … not allow those [other] wars to take our attention away from the bigger fight that we need to have.”
– Ana Toni, CEO of COP30 and National Secretary for Climate Change at
Brazil’s Ministry of the Environment and Climate Change, to The Guardian’s Fiona Harvey
Noteworthy Stories
Big, Beautiful Coal. A last-minute addition to the Trump-backed megabill wending its way through Congress, slipped in before it passed the Senate on Tuesday, allocates hundreds of millions in tax credits to coal companies. That’s on top of already heavy favors to the fossil fuel industry in the bill, including a handful of new oil and gas leases in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge, and potentially devastating cuts to renewable energy projects nationwide. By Lee Hedgepeth and Marianne Lavelle for Inside Climate News…
Affordability as climate action. Zohran Mamdani, the democratic socialist who, last week, won the Democratic primary for mayor of New York City, centered his campaign on the city’s affordability crisis. Many of his policy proposals, though, have the added benefits of reducing carbon emissions and boosting environmental justice. By Dharna Noor for The Guardian…
Book burning. The Trump administration has shut down globalchange.gov, a federal website that presented congressionally-mandated and tax-payer funded National Climate Assessments and a wide range of information on the current and future impacts of climate change on the American people. “It’s scientific censorship at its worst,” one expert said. “This is the modern version of book burning.” By Ian James and Noah Haggerty for the Los Angeles Times…
Choppy waters. The wind industry has become an economic lifesaver for thousands of New England electricians, welders, and fishermen. Now, though, as President Trump continues to attack the industry and block many wind projects, those workers’ livelihoods are at risk of devastation. By Clare Fieseler for Mother Jones…
Climate change and HIV. In Kenya, beyond the better-known impacts of failed crops and frequent floods, climate change–fueled disasters are driving a crisis in sexual and reproductive health, especially amongst adolescent and queer Kenyans. “Climate change isn’t just an environmental issue,” one expert said. “It’s a public health emergency for marginalized populations.” By Pauline Kairu for Kenya’s Daily Nation…
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