Environmental Polling Roundup – May 3, 2024
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 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 to the idea 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]
FULL ROUNDUP
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 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]
Voters continue to hold corporate polluters most responsible for climate change. When asked to choose which group is most responsible for causing climate change in the United States, voters assign the most blame to “big corporations generally” (30%) or to “oil and gas companies specifically” (28%).
Relatively fewer say that the government (18%) or individual consumers (13%) are most responsible.
Democrats are particularly likely to say that oil and gas companies specifically are most responsible (39%), while independents (36%) and Republicans (27%) assign the most blame to big corporations more generally.
Across the political spectrum, it strikes voters as common sense that the entities most responsible for climate pollution should be held most accountable for reducing their climate impacts and mitigating the damage. After reading that “a new report finds that just 122 entities worldwide are responsible for over 70 percent of global fossil fuel and cement emissions since the start of the Industrial Revolution” (based on the recent InfluenceMap Carbon Majors report), voters agree by an 81%-10% margin that “entities with the largest emissions should be most responsible for reducing their carbon footprint and climate impact.”
Support for this idea spans the political spectrum, with 87% of Democrats, 80% of independents, and 74% of Republicans all agreeing that the biggest climate polluters should be held most responsible for mitigating the damage.
Two-thirds of voters support a “climate superfund” bill after being introduced to the idea. Upon learning that “some lawmakers are considering 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,” voters back the idea by a greater than two-to-one margin (66% support / 28% oppose, including 37% who “strongly” support the idea).
The climate superfund proposal enjoys overwhelming support among Democrats (89% support / 6% oppose) and majority support among independents (57% support / 32% oppose), while splitting Republicans roughly equally (45% support / 48% oppose).
Ahead of the U.S. Senate hearing on Big Oil misinformation, most voters were aware of efforts from fossil fuel companies to mislead the public and delay climate action. Voters were most likely to say that they had heard about oil companies lying about their knowledge of pollution and lobbying against climate policies. Here are the percentages who said that they’d heard about each of various fossil fuel industry tactics:
- Oil companies discovered that their products were polluting the environment decades ago and have lied to the public since to protect their bottom line – 57% heard about this
- Oil companies funded advocacy groups to lobby against climate policies – 51%
- Oil and gas industry groups ran advertisements in news outlets questioning reputable climate research – 47%
- Oil and gas industry groups hired public relations firms to popularize the idea of a “personal carbon footprint” to shift responsibility for the climate crisis away from oil and gas companies – 46%
- While oil companies prepared their own oil rigs to withstand sea level rise from climate change, they didn’t warn coastal cities about these risks – 34%
Voters are particularly angered that Big Oil knowingly lied for decades about the pollution that they were causing. Of the industry tactics that Fossil Free Media and Data for Progress asked about, the following provoked the most widespread and intense anger in response:
- Oil companies discovered that their products were polluting the environment decades ago and have lied to the public since to protect their bottom line – 72% are angry about this, including 41% who are “very” angry
- While oil companies prepared their own oil rigs to withstand sea level rise from climate change, they didn’t warn coastal cities about these risks – 68% angry, 33% “very” angry
- Oil and gas industry groups hired public relations firms to popularize the idea of a “personal carbon footprint” to shift responsibility for the climate crisis away from oil and gas companies – 67% angry, 31% “very” angry
- Oil companies funded advocacy groups to lobby against climate policies – 66% angry, 31% “very” angry
The concept of a “carbon footprint” is well-known, but voters assume that it originated with environmental advocates and not the fossil fuel industry. The vast majority of voters (85%) say that they’ve heard about the idea of a “carbon footprint,” including 39% who say that they’ve heard “a lot” about it.
However, few understand where the term came from. When asked who coined it, most voters mistakenly believe that the term originated with environmental organizations (39%) or climate activists (30%). Only 9% correctly recognize that the idea of a “carbon footprint” was initially promoted by fossil fuel companies.
When they learn that the idea of a “carbon footprint” was popularized by BP, voters can see through it as a tactic to shift responsibility away from corporate polluters. After reading that “the oil and gas company British Petroleum (BP) coined and promoted the term ‘carbon footprint’ to promote the idea that climate change is not the fault of oil and gas companies, but that of individuals,” voters side far more with an argument that BP should be held responsible for trying to shift the blame for the problem than an argument that BP was genuinely trying to promote sustainability.
Below are the two competing arguments that respondents saw on this topic:
- “BP created the ‘carbon footprint’ to put the burden of addressing climate change on individuals and shirk its own responsibility to reduce emissions. As a result, BP should be held accountable for its efforts to delay and avoid its own emissions reductions.” (60% agree more with this argument)
- “BP used the ‘carbon footprint’ to promote sustainability and action on climate change. As a result, BP should not be punished for coining and promoting the term ‘carbon footprint.’” (24% agree more with this argument)
Voters of every political affiliation side more with the argument in favor of accountability for BP – including a 70%-19% margin among Democrats, a 58%-25% margin among independents, and a 51%-30% margin among Republicans.
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]
Most Americans recognize that climate change is already happening. Three in five (60%) agree that “the impacts of climate change are being experienced now,” while 16% say that the impacts aren’t being experienced now “but will be felt in the future.”
Meanwhile, only a small percentage of Americans (13%) say that “there are no impacts of climate change” to be felt now or in the future.
“Climate change” and “extreme weather” increasingly mean the same thing to the public. We’ve seen perceptions about climate change and extreme weather align more over time, and the concept of extreme weather has accordingly become more polarized: Democrats are consistently more likely than Republicans to say that they’ve experienced extreme weather, even within the same parts of the country.
Here, the Walton Family Foundation and Morning Consult find only negligible differences in people’s concerns about “climate change” and “extreme weather.” Around seven in ten say that they’re concerned about both climate change (68%) and extreme weather (69%). Additionally, nearly identical percentages say that they are “very” concerned about climate change (36%) and extreme weather (34%).
Extreme heat continues to be by far the most salient example of extreme weather for Americans. Out of several examples of extreme weather provided in the poll, extreme heat is the one type of event that the majority of Americans (54%) say that they’ve personally experienced at least “somewhat often” in the past year.
Extreme or excessive rain is the next-most experienced example (42%), followed by flooding (30%), poor air quality from wildfires (30%), and drought (27%).
Extreme heat was the most frequently experienced extreme weather event across every major region except for the Northeast, as Northeast residents were most likely to say that they’d experienced extreme or excessive rain.
Investments in climate resilience draw broad support across the political spectrum. The overwhelming majority of Americans (71%) say that they support further actions to increase climate resilience when provided with the following explanation of it: “The U.S. is in the middle of a long-term climate shift, which is
making each region of the country more vulnerable to extreme weather events. Climate resilience is the ability to cope with and recover from climate change events, such as droughts, flooding, extreme heat, and wildfires.”
Investments in climate resilience are popular across partisan lines, with large margins of support among Democrats (84%-6%), independents (66%-11%), and Republicans (65%-22%).
Arguments for nature-based climate solutions are persuasive. After being provided with several examples of nature-based solutions (including restoring wetlands and meadows to limit the spread of wildfires and absorb flood waters and building more green spaces to protect cities from extreme heat), the majority of Americans (55%) say that the country should be putting more emphasis on nature-based solutions while only 6% say that we should place less emphasis on nature-based solutions.
The poll also tested five different messages in support of nature-based solutions, with all testing as similarly persuasive on a 0-10 scale of convincingness (7.6 – 7.8 on average).
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]
The Inflation Reduction Act is as popular as ever. Navigator finds record-high support for the Inflation Reduction Act after nearly two years of tracking attitudes about it using the following description: “As you may know, Biden and Democrats’ legislation that was passed by Congress is called the Inflation Reduction Act, which will give Medicare the power to negotiate lower drug prices, bring down health insurance premiums, and invest in clean energy like wind and solar power.”
In their latest poll, voters support the IRA by a 71%-20% margin based on this description. This is largely driven by sky-high support among Democrats (94% support), while Navigator finds that independents are also supporting the IRA by an increasingly wide margin (65% support / 17% oppose).
Additionally, while previous Navigator polling showed that Republicans were closely split over the IRA, their latest poll finds that Republicans support it by a nine-point margin (48% support / 39% oppose).
However, voters are still hearing fairly little about the IRA. Only around half of Americans (49%) say that they’ve heard at least “some” about the Inflation Reduction Act, including only 13% who have heard “a lot” about it. Similarly, CBS News and YouGov found recently that only 14% of Americans have heard “a lot” about the Biden administration’s actions to address climate change.
Citizen Data – Young Americans express the greatest concerns about climate change, and are particularly likely to take action in response [Article]
Virtually all young Americans care at least some about climate change. Roughly half of young Americans aged 18-34 (49%) say that they are “very” or “extremely” concerned about climate change, which is the highest of any age group.
Additionally, 18-34 year olds are far less likely than other age groups to dismiss the problem by saying that they are “not very” or “not at all concerned” about it (just 13%).
Close to two-thirds of Americans aged 18-34 (64%) also say that they’ve taken some form of action to address their concerns about climate change, which is considerably higher than average.
Democrats care the most intensely about climate change, but most Republicans also have some concerns about it. Around three-quarters of Democrats (74%) are “very” or “extremely” concerned about climate change, compared to just 29% of Republicans.
However, around half of Republicans (52%) say that they are at least “somewhat” concerned about the issue.
Related Resources
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