This post includes climate and environment headlines, data points, and key takeaways from recent public polls - including new polling on polluter accountability, Big Oil misinformation, climate resilience, and the Inflation Reduction Act.

HEADLINES

Fossil Free Media + Data for Progress
Voters widely agree that corporate polluters should be held accountable, and two-thirds support a “climate superfund” bill; voters are especially angered to hear that the fossil fuel industry knew about its pollution decades ago and still lied to the public about it [Polluter Accountability Article, Polluter Accountability Crosstabs, Misinformation + Climate Superfund Crosstabs]

Walton Family Foundation + Morning Consult
Most Americans say that climate change is happening now, and majorities across party lines support investments in “climate resilience” after learning about the concept [Release, Deck]

Navigator

Seven in ten voters support the Inflation Reduction Act when they learn basic information about it, but half say that they’ve heard little or nothing about it [Release, Deck]

Citizen Data
Young Americans express the greatest concerns about climate change, and are particularly likely to take action in response [Article]

KEY TAKEAWAYS

Messaging about fossil fuel accountability should lean into basic ideas of common sense and fairness: they did wrong by knowingly lying to people about pollution, and the companies most responsible for pollution should be held the most accountable. Measures to hold climate polluters accountable tend to be popular across the political spectrum, as they unite constituencies against a common enemy and speak to a fundamental concept of fairness that virtually all can agree on: those who are most responsible for a problem should be held most responsible for rectifying it. In new polling, Data for Progress finds that voters of all partisan affiliations widely agree that the entities with the largest emissions should be most responsible for reducing their climate impacts. Additionally, in a poll about fossil fuel industry misinformation, Fossil Free Media and Data for Progress find that voters are particularly angered to hear that fossil fuel companies knew about the effects of their pollution for decades and knowingly lied to the public.
Investments in climate resilience are uncontroversial, even among audiences who are more skeptical about mitigation. While there remain some sharp partisan disagreements about how much humans are responsible for climate change and what measures we should take to reduce climate pollution, a vanishingly small percentage of Americans still deny the reality that climate change is happening. Accordingly, there is widespread agreement - including among conservative audiences - that we need to take proactive steps to protect ourselves from worsening climate change and extreme weather. To that end, polling by the Walton Family Foundation and Morning Consult finds overwhelming, bipartisan support for investments in climate resilience and minimal opposition from any corner of the electorate.

GOOD DATA POINTS TO HIGHLIGHT

[Polluter Accountability] 81% of voters agree that entities with the largest emissions should be most responsible for reducing their carbon footprint and climate impact [Data for Progress]
[Polluter Accountability] 72% of voters are angry to hear that oil companies “discovered that their products were polluting the environment decades ago and have lied to the public since to protect their bottom line” [Fossil Free Media + Data for Progress]
[Polluter Accountability] 66% of voters support a “climate superfund” bill that would require oil and gas companies to pay a share of the cost of climate damages caused by their pollution [Fossil Free Media + Data for Progress]
[Inflation Reduction Act] Voters support the Inflation Reduction Act by a 71%-20% margin after reading a brief description of it [Navigator]
[Climate Resilience] 71% of Americans support actions to increase climate resilience after seeing a brief description of the term [Walton Family Foundation + Morning Consult]
[Climate Impacts] 60% of Americans agree that the impacts of climate change “are being experienced now” [Walton Family Foundation + Morning Consult]