Those who are deeply concerned about climate change tend to think of themselves as being in the minority. The slow and halting progress we have made toward addressing climate change, and particularly the reluctance of governments to take effective action, might seem to lend support to this belief. The fact is, however, that those who care deeply about climate change and want to see more government action to address it are not a minority at all, but the majority. Most people, in countries around the world, and in Canada, are very concerned about the climate, and want to see more government climate action.
A number of recent studies have shown that world-wide, the vast majority of people are aware of the threat which climate change poses to our future, and want their governments to do more in response to that threat. The Global Climate Change Survey of 2021/2022, which surveyed 130,000 individuals across 125 countries, found that globally, 89% of people favoured greater action by government to deal with climate change. It also found that 69% of people would be willing to contribute 1% of their income to help reduce climate change. This study also found that people consistently underestimate how concerned their fellow citizens are about climate, and the degree to which they support climate action. For example, people estimated that just 43% of their fellow citizens would be willing to give 1% of their income to fight climate change. This is 26% lower than the actual proportion willing to do so. (1)
Another Study, Peoples’ Climate Vote 2024 by the United Nations Development Program and the University of Oxford, found that 80% of people, globally, want stronger climate action from their own government, and that 72% of the global population want their country to quickly replace coal, oil, and gas as energy sources with renewable energy, such as electricity generated from the wind and the sun.
Both of these studies reported that levels of concern about climate, and the desire for more climate action by government, were greater in poorer and middle-income countries than in wealthier ones. The Global Climate Change survey, in inquiring as to why, concluded that richer countries were more likely to possess the resources necessary to adapt to a changing climate, and that their high incomes were dependent on the continued use of fossil fuels. The Global Climate Change Survey also concluded that people in warmer countries, which were more likely to be already experiencing the adverse effects of climate change, were, on average, more willing to give up income to combat climate change, and more desirous of greater climate action by government.
Canada is a rich, industrialized, northern country, and this is reflected in survey results for this country, as it is for other countries similarly situated, such as the United States. “People’s Climate Vote 2024” found that 66% of Canadians want more climate action from government, and that 65% of Canadians favoured a quick transition from coal, oil, and gas to renewable energy. There are two ways to look at these numbers. On the one hand, in comparison to the global average, a smaller proportion of Canadians want to see stronger climate action from government, and a rapid energy transition. On the other hand, a solid majority of Canadians do want these things, and this is, or should be, a significant political fact.
The 2025 Federal Election illustrates the point. There is no doubt that in the events leading up to the election, and in the campaign, climate change, as a political issue, was pulled back from centre stage and bundled off to somewhere in the wings. Mr. Poilievre was hoping for a “carbon tax election” in which he could make effective use of his “axe the tax” slogan. This did not materialize, in part because Mr. Carney did away with consumer carbon pricing as one of his first acts as PM, thereby ensuring that the election would be fought on other issues. In the runup to the election, just four percent of eligible voters reported that climate change was the most important issue for them.
Where then, is the evidence of the roughly 2/3 support for greater climate action?
Climate change, as a political issue, was to some degree submerged, like all other issues, by the overwhelming importance attached to the question of how best to meet threats to our national sovereignty. Yet poll results showed that Canadians still cared about climate change. An Angus Reid poll found that climate change ranked sixth on voters’ list of priorities – not insignificant – and it was on the issue of climate change that the ultimately victorious Liberals enjoyed their greatest lead – of 83% – over their Conservative opponents.
Mr. Carney’s own personal commitment to climate change action is very strong, and is a well-known element of his resume. After he was Governor of the Bank of Canada, and Governor of the Bank of England, he was both the United Nations Special Envoy on Climate Action and Finance, and the United Kingdom’s Finance Advisor at COP 26. Mr. Carney’s book, Value(s), sets out how reforms to international financial institutions could help redirect investment dollars away from fossil fuel projects and toward the development of renewable energy resources.
The platform on which the Liberal Party ran committed it to a number of actions on the climate front: improvements to the Output Based Pricing System for pricing industrial carbon; a carbon border adjustment mechanism (an import tariff to protect Canadian industry from foreign competitors who are allowed to emit higher levels of CO2); enhanced methane regulations for oil and gas producers; support for clean energy projects; the expansion of the EV charging network; and the phase out of fossil fuel use in government buildings.
In the election itself, 57.5% of ballots cast nationally were for parties with strong climate change platforms. Of the two leading parties, the Liberals and the Conservatives, it was the victorious Liberals who unambiguously favoured vigorous climate action. The election gave Mr. Carney and his government a strong mandate to act on climate change.
The manner in which Canada deals with the challenges it now confronts will set our direction for many years into the future. There are opportunists who would like nothing better than to use our situation as a pretext for pursuing economic growth at the cost of all other priorities, including our response to climate change. This was certainly the case with the 38 CEOs of Canadian oil and gas companies who, on the day after the election, sent Mr. Carney their wish list, which included the elimination of the emissions cap on oil and gas production, and the end of industrial carbon pricing. Mr. Carney should reject demands of this kind, for a number of reasons. In the absence of a concerted global effort to stop climate change, its many costs, which we are already paying, will only grow, at an accelerating rate. Addressing climate change in a timely and effective manner will directly benefit the Canadian economy; as Mr. Carney himself has argued, there is a huge economic opportunity in the transition away from fossil fuels and toward renewable energy.
There is also this: a solid majority of Canadians, just like a majority of people around the globe, want their government to do more, not less, to ensure that we bequeath to our children a planet upon which they and their children can flourish.
https://www.nature.com/articles/s41558-024-01925-3
https://peoplesclimate.vote/document/Peoples_Climate_Vote_Report_2024.pdf
