{"id":1361581,"date":"2023-11-30T05:01:00","date_gmt":"2023-11-30T05:01:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/grist.org\/?p=624041"},"modified":"2023-11-30T05:01:00","modified_gmt":"2023-11-30T05:01:00","slug":"4-in-5-people-around-the-world-support-whatever-it-takes-to-limit-climate-change","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/radiofree.asia\/2023\/11\/30\/4-in-5-people-around-the-world-support-whatever-it-takes-to-limit-climate-change\/","title":{"rendered":"4 in 5 people around the world support \u2018whatever it takes\u2019 to limit climate change"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

More than 70,000 delegates from around the world are gathering at the U.N. climate talks in Dubai this week to negotiate (ostensibly<\/a>) how to tackle the climate crisis. Many of the important conversations at COP28<\/a> will revolve around \u201closs and damage,\u201d rules for \u201ccarbon markets,\u201d and whether to \u201cphase down\u201d or \u201cphase out\u201d fossil fuels. Not exactly kitchen-table topics.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThere will be a fair amount of gobbledygook coming out of COP28,\u201d said John Marshall, the CEO of Potential Energy, a nonpartisan, nonprofit marketing firm.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

A lot of that jargon is bound to go over people\u2019s heads, but a new survey, the largest of its kind, shows that people around the world want their governments to take action. Some 78 percent of those polled agree that it\u2019s essential to do \u201cwhatever it takes\u201d to limit the effects of climate change, according to the survey released on Thursday by Potential Energy, the Yale Program on Climate Change Communication, and other organizations. The research also gauged what messages resonated with people the most. The best one? \u201cLater is too late.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

That fits with the reason people wanted action: to protect the planet for the next generation. What the report called \u201cgenerational messaging\u201d was 12 times more effective than other options, such as increasing job opportunities or reducing social inequality. \u201cThe thing that moves people the most is putting right in front of them the things that they care about and showing them that those things are at risk,\u201d Marshall said. \u201cIt was the leading message in every segment in every country and every age group and every political persuasion.\u201d <\/p>\n\n\n\n

According to Marshall, who has 35 years of experience in corporate marketing, keeping the message simple, straightforward, and jargon-free is best. The phrase \u201cLater is too late\u201d increased people\u2019s support for immediate action on climate change by an average of 11 percent in randomized controlled trials. It had nearly double the effect of a message about making polluters pay, the runner-up.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

While people around the world are united in supporting government action on climate change, some of that support evaporated when it came to specific policies. They were most enthusiastic about clean energy instead of coal and subsidies for renewable energy companies, and least enthusiastic for phasing out fossil fuels and ending subsidies for polluters. Messages that used the words \u201cmandate,\u201d \u201cban,\u201d or \u201cphaseout\u201d generated 9 percentage points less support, on average, than those that didn\u2019t. For example, only 54 percent were in favor of \u201cbanning\u201d gas appliances in buildings, but 74 approved of requiring \u201cbetter technologies\u201d and \u201csmart upgrades\u201d in all new construction. That could be bad news for popular climate catchphrases like \u201ckeep it in the ground.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cI think the data is saying we need to lean in to the messages that get us the wins, as opposed to the messages that make us feel good about ourselves,\u201d Marshall said. Talking about upgrading appliances and heating and cooling systems and setting clean energy goals increased people\u2019s support for climate policies. The only kind of limitation people liked was reducing pollution. For that reason, Marshall said, it\u2019s important to stress that burning fossil fuels causes pollution<\/em><\/a> that\u2019s overheating the planet.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"Photo
Activists protest the Obama administration\u2019s plans to allow new fossil fuel drilling on public lands and oceans during a demonstration in front of the White House in Washington, D.C., September 15, 2015. Saul Loeb \/ AFP via Getty Images<\/cite><\/figcaption><\/div><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Among the 23 countries surveyed, the United States had the lowest support for climate policies \u2014 but still, nearly 60 percent supported action. Germany, Japan, Australia, Norway, and Saudi Arabia also had relatively low levels of support, suggesting that political polarization and fossil fuel production might have something to do with it. The United States had the biggest difference between liberals and conservatives, with almost a 50 percent gap in policy support. Republicans had the lowest support for climate policies in the world, followed by Germany\u2019s far-right Alternative for Deutschland Party, or AfD. (Just as Republicans once claimed that a Green New Deal would eliminate hamburgers, AfD politicians have warned that elites are trying to take away schnitzel<\/a>.)<\/p>\n\n\n\n

On the other end of the spectrum, Chile, Kenya, Argentina, Colombia, and Indonesia all had strong support for action, with more than 70 percent of people in each country approving the climate policies tested.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In every country, people largely blame the government and businesses<\/a> for climate change, not individuals, the report found. Only 26 percent of people worldwide said that individuals should be most responsible for tackling the problem.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n

People often underestimate the popularity of climate action<\/a>, and Marshall said that it\u2019s a mistake for politicians to shy away from talking about climate change directly. He thinks there\u2019s \u201ctoo much cleverness going on\u201d when it comes to how to talk about the problem. \u201cIt’s the largest crisis that humanity has ever faced, and we feel the need to go in the side door,\u201d he said. \u201cI hope this data helps people not chicken out \u2014 like, just go through the front door. It’s not that hard.\u201d<\/p>\n

This story was originally published by Grist<\/a> with the headline 4 in 5 people around the world support \u2018whatever it takes\u2019 to limit climate change<\/a> on Nov 30, 2023.<\/p>\n

This post was originally published on Grist<\/a>. <\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

But there\u2019s a disconnect between what politicians say and what the public wants.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":262,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[982],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/radiofree.asia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1361581"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/radiofree.asia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/radiofree.asia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/radiofree.asia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/262"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/radiofree.asia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1361581"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/radiofree.asia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1361581\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1363647,"href":"https:\/\/radiofree.asia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1361581\/revisions\/1363647"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/radiofree.asia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1361581"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/radiofree.asia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1361581"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/radiofree.asia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1361581"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}