Issue: Climate Policy

This post includes climate and environment headlines, data points, and key takeaways from recent public polls – including polling on infrastructure and climate policy and oil and gas company accountability.

This post includes climate and environment headlines, data points, and key takeaways from recent public polls – including polling on infrastructure policy, conservative clean energy beliefs, and conservation as a bipartisan priority.

Clean energy and climate mitigation policies are very popular. 60% of registered voters say developing sources of clean energy should be a high or very high priority for the president and Congress. 78% support providing tax rebates to people who purchase energy-efficient vehicles or solar panels. 76% support funding more research into renewable energy sources. 72% support regulating carbon dioxide as a pollutant. 67% support transitioning the U.S. economy (including electric utilities, transportation, buildings, and industry) from fossil fuels to 100% clean energy by 2050. 82% support re-establishing the Civilian Conservation Corps, which would employ workers to protect natural ecosystems, plant trees in rural and urban areas, and restore the soil on farmlands. 56% of registered voters support a U.S. president declaring global warming a national emergency if Congress does not act. Many more related survey questions were asked.

Many corporations and governments are advancing “net zero” climate plans that fail to provide real solutions to addressing climate change and cutting emissions. These plans allow polluting industries to escape responsibility to address climate change and shift the burden of climate action to frontline communities.

A broad majority young Americans understand anthropogenic climate change, but many are struggling to identify individual practices they can take to improve global sustainability, according to a survey of 15-25 year olds on climate change, environmental justice, and related public policy initiatives.

38% call climate change a crisis, 31% say it’s a problem, 12% a concern, 9% a non-issue, and 8% label it fiction.
While 44% of young Americans are either “very” (21%) or “somewhat” (23%) optimistic the world will successfully address climate change, 47% are either “somewhat” (12%) or “very” (25%) pessimistic
Respodents expressed a strong desire to do their part in mitigating climate change, but many were unsure how:
27% of respondents say they have reduced their usage of single-use plastics, 14% take alternate transportation, and 12% have curtailed electrical use. Another 14% have participated in a march or protest, and 10% have volunteered to create change. 67% have shared climate information on social media. (89% report they get the majority of their news from social media.)
67% of respondents report they do not believe U.S. residents are equally protected against exposure to pollution and other ecological hazards and 37% characterize environmental justice in the U.S. as “extremely inequitable.”
The survey also found significant support for many of President Biden’s environmental actions.