University survey shows climate change at top of Australian voters' minds

0 Comment(s)Print E-mail Xinhua, May 11, 2022
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SYDNEY, May 11 (Xinhua) -- A new survey conducted by Griffith University has shown that three out of four Australians are concerned about climate change and would support policies that limit its potential impacts.

The results of the Climate Action Survey came from a survey of 3,915 Australian adults and were released on Wednesday alongside a report.

A decade prior the same survey was conducted, it showed that just 34 percent of Australians were concerned with climate change. In 2021 this number had more than doubled to 72 percent.

Lead author of the report, Associate Professor Sameer Deshpande said that the project was one of the "most ambitious climate change surveys yet conducted in Australia," and showed that key attitudes had experienced a dramatic shift.

"Almost a quarter of respondents believed that climate change was an 'extremely serious' problem right now, and 45 percent believed it would be by 2050," said Deshpande.

The survey showed that just 2 percent of the surveyed population were climate change deniers, 5 percent were skeptics, and 16 percent were unconvinced about climate change.

Climate change concern was the highest among respondents under 35, students, urban residents, people who don't speak English as their main language, and people who reported as voters for Australia's left-leaning political parties.

Women also reported stronger beliefs than men when it came to climate change.

While Australia makes up just 0.33 percent of the world's population, it is responsible for 3.6 percent of the world's emissions, as it is a major global supplier of coal and other fossil fuels.

Despite this, the Australian government only recently pledged to net zero emissions by 2050 as set out by the United Nations, and the government's pathway to net zero has been criticized as lacking substance and a clear plan to reach the target.

However, amid searing heatwaves and bushfires, flooding on Australia's east coast and environmental degradation, 57 percent of respondents believed they were already starting to feel the effects of climate change. Enditem

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