• November 24, 2021
• Kathryn Braid
• no comments

As an ethically driven data pioneer, we decided to utilise our Zero Party Data platform to investigate global attitudes towards the single greatest challenge facing our world. 

It’s safe to say that there were mixed reactions to the UN Climate Change Conference (COP26).

As part of our commitment to more ethical and sustainable practices, we decided to run a series of Climate Change surveys. We asked our 370,000 global Citizens their reactions to the recent UN Conference held in Glasgow. The results offer a deeper understanding of global attitudes towards climate change. We also clarified whether our Citizens have confidence in global leaders to prioritise reversing global warming. 

How Do You Feel? 

The day before the climate change conference, on 11 November, we asked Citizens how they felt, overall, about the world. We have maintained a Global Tracker on world sentiment since the start of the COVID-19 pandemic. 

According to our results, Citizens felt more negative than positive as the UN Climate Change Conference approached. We categorised the words chosen by Citizens into positive, negative, neutral and mixed responses. Positive responses included ‘I am hopeful’ and ‘Hope, enthusiasm, change’. Negative responses included ‘I am anxious’ and ‘Life is hard.’

We established a baseline of sentiment before asking a series of questions about Climate Change. 

The End of Deforestation

There were many favourable responses to the summit, including that of Prince Charles of the United Kingdom, who has called COP26 “amazing”. Svenja Schulze, the German Environment Minister, has claimed,

“The fossil fuel era is coming to an end, the energy transition is becoming the guiding principle worldwide.” 

www.cleanenergywire.org

We asked our Citizens if they believe UN members will keep their promise to end deforestation by 2030. Both US and UK respondents had one overwhelming response: no. 

Why?

Citizens felt, overall, that economic vs environmental concerns would cause issues with the promise to end deforestation by 2030. 

Age, Climate Change and COVID-19

We can also see a consensus that Citizens feel the COVID-19 pandemic has negatively impacted commitments to fight climate change. When we cross analyse by age, we can see that Citizens over fifty and in the US are more convinced COVID-19 has negatively impacted climate change initiatives. In the UK, the consensus across generations is much more robust, as Citizens seem essentially confident that COVID-19 has negatively impacted the fight against climate change.

Interested to learn how you can run your own insights with Zero Party Data? 

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