What’s Going On Here?
Two thirds of people across the world agree climate change is as serious a crisis as Coronavirus.
What Does This Mean?
A new Ipsos poll found that 71% of adults agree that, in the long term, climate change is as serious a crisis as Covid-19. The study was conducted in 14 countries with over 28,000 adults.The survey shows widespread support for government actions to prioritise climate change in the economic recovery after Covid-19, with 65% agreeing that it’s important. Whoop Whoop!In addition, a majority of the public globally (68%) agree that if their governments do not act now to combat climate change, they will be failing their citizens. Nearly six in ten (57%) also said they would be put off from voting for a political party whose policies do not take climate change seriously.
We are witnessing governments from around the world flexing their lockdown muscles with relative success. In fact, more than 3.9 billion people, or half of the world’s population, have now been asked or ordered to stay at home by their governments in order to prevent the spread of the deadly COVID-19 virus.
It therefore isn’t surprising that Ipsos’ survey shows us that our attitudes towards the role of government in the face of climate change is changing and that perhaps an authoritarian climate approach is the answer. Taxing high carbon intensive products and services while offering incentives to green, cleaner alternatives does make the curious.earth team feel warm and fuzzy inside.
Why Should We Care?
The survey results are the latest in a growing pile of evidence that the UK public want to prioritise tackling climate change and that we want any Covid-19 economic handouts to do the same. That might be providing relief to car manufacturers with the caveat of solely investmenting it in clean mobility. Or offering handouts to energy companies that need to ditch their investment in oil and gas and swap to renewables.
The question is no longer, ‘what’ should we do but ‘WHEN’.
One thing that’s for sure is that in the face of a crisis, the once glacial pace of law making, policy change and paper pushing is no more. If there is just one thing that we can learn from covid-19 at this stage, it’s that when push comes to shove, some governments around the world are capable of record breaking speed.
Be Curious!
- Keep the pressure on your local and national government (while staying 2 meters apart…)
- Read Curious.Helen’s article on A greener future? Options for a climate friendly recovery for some extra juicy info!
