Resource Type: Polling & Surveys

Frames that include social and economic reforms increase public support for climate change mitigation. Combining increased minimum wage, affordable housing with job guarantees are effective frames, particularly among people of color. Advocates should consider linking climate policy to social and economic reforms. Policy bundling can expand the scope of political discussion and sidestep gridlock. In a series of experiments, the authors find that compared to frames that did not include any economic policy, hypothetical proposals that included a job guarantee, the retraining of fossil fuel workers, or provide unionized clean energy jobs increases support for the bundled policy by 6-14 percentage points.  Importantly: while the increase in support was higher for Democrats, NONE of the economic frames was associated with a decrease in support among Republicans. 
 

Most Americans are underestimating both the potential economic impact of climate change and the role that entrepreneurs and investors can play in rectifying it, according to Inerjys Ventures, a global climate solutions investment firm:

Fewer than two in five Americans (38%) believe climate change will damage the U.S. economy if it is not addressed.
About one in five Americans (19%) think it will cost more to solve climate change globally than it will to fix the problems that arise from it.
A quarter (25%) of Americans don’t think efforts from U.S. entrepreneurs/start-up companies are important in the fight against climate change.
Only about a third of Americans (35%) believe there is not enough money being invested in technology that could help prevent or fix climate change.
42% say the U.S. government has more of a responsibility than U.S. companies to address issues in America that cause climate change.