This post includes climate and environment headlines, data points, and key takeaways from recent public polls - including new polling on polluter accountability and new polls of Black voters and young Americans.

HEADLINES

Data for Progress – Voters across party lines support the recently introduced Polluters Pay Climate Fund Act [Article, Crosstabs]

[Black Voters] Climate Power – Messaging to Black voters in battleground states about climate and energy issues increases their motivation to vote; messages about costs and health are particularly persuasive [Release, Deck]

[Youth] Gallup + Walton Family Foundation – Water pollution is a common concern for Gen Z Americans, and around one-third worry that they will lack clean water and will need to move because of climate change [Article]

[Youth] Service Year Alliance + Data for Progress – Most young Americans care about addressing climate change in their own lives and careers; while few have heard about the American Climate Corps, a large majority are interested in it after learning about it [Release, Report, Crosstabs]

KEY TAKEAWAYS

Support for polluter accountability continues to bridge the partisan divide. Polluter accountability measures are one of the few types of environmental proposals that, even in the context of a heated election, reliably draw cross-partisan support. Data for Progress finds that around two-thirds of voters, including half of Republicans, support the Polluters Pay Climate Fund Act that was recently introduced in Congress. Polls have consistently shown that, despite Trump’s embrace of the oil and gas industry, his own voters have mixed feelings about fossil fuel companies and many want to hold them more accountable.

Cost-focused clean energy messaging is resonating strongly with voters. For many years, polls showed that messages about clean energy costs weren’t actually that effective at moving voters to support clean energy and climate action. Arguments about costs consistently rated as less convincing, for example than messages focused on health and future generations. Now, at least in the context of the presidential race, we’re starting to see cost-focused messages rate as equally or more persuasive than any other climate-related messaging. This finding mirrors other battleground polling that Climate Power conducted last month, which showed that voters were more persuaded by messages about energy costs than about any other topic related to climate and energy.

GOOD DATA POINTS TO HIGHLIGHT

• [Polluter Accountability] Voters support the Polluters Pay Climate Fund Act by a 66%-24% margin after reading a brief description of it [Data for Progress]
• [Black Voters] 58% of Black voters in battleground states say that climate change is a “top” or “major” priority for them in the presidential election [Climate Power]
• [Youth] 81% of young Americans aged 18-26 agree that climate change “poses a serious threat to our future,” including 67% of young conservatives [Service Year Alliance + Data for Progress]
• [Youth] 67% of young Americans aged 18-26 say that they want to take more personal actions to address climate change [Service Year Alliance + Data for Progress]
• [Youth] 63% of young Americans aged 18-26 say that it’s important to them to have a job that would enable them to contribute toward addressing climate change [Service Year Alliance + Data for Progress]