Public Resource
Environmental Polling Roundup – December 13th, 2024
David Gold, Environmental Polling Consortium

This post includes climate and environment headlines, data points, and key takeaways from recent public polls - including a new report from Pew about Americans’ beliefs and preferences for climate policy, new polling about residential solar, and new research about the emotions behind climate activism.

 

Headlines

Pew – Americans are split on whether efforts to address climate change help or hurt the economy; Democrats and Republicans continue to have different priorities for climate policy, with Democrats emphasizing environmental protection and Republicans prioritizing consumer costs [Article, Full Report, Topline]

Data for Progress – Nearly half of voters say that they’re interested in rooftop solar where they live; costs are both the primary incentive and biggest barrier, as Americans are eager to lower their electricity bills but are concerned about installation costs [Release, Crosstabs]

Yale + GMU – Americans who experience “psychological distress” about climate change are more likely to take part in collective action [Release, Open Access Article]

 

Key Takeaways

  • Cost concerns remain the key barrier to bringing more conservatives on board with the clean energy transition. Pew finds that Americans are split evenly in their beliefs about whether policies to address climate change have a positive or negative impact on the economy, with Democrats tending to see a positive effect and Republicans tending to see a negative effect. Pew also finds that Democrats and Republicans evaluate climate policies in very different ways, with Democrats primarily weighing how much policies will protect the environment for future generations and Republicans primarily considering climate policies’ effects on consumer costs. While there’s still value in emphasizing the benefits of clean energy for public health and future generations (benefits that are already widely acknowledged across audiences), this data shows that we are unlikely to achieve durable, bipartisan support for the clean energy transition until we can convince conservative audiences that the transition will also benefit the economy and consumers.
  • Consumers need to hear that the financial benefits of residential solar outweigh the installation costs. Data for Progress similarly finds that costs are the make-or-break factor in the way that voters view residential solar. More than any other rationales, voters say that lower electricity bills are the biggest reason why they would consider residential solar and that installation costs are the biggest reason why they would opt against it. All other factors, including solar panels’ appearance, are far less important to consumers. Accordingly, solar advocates need to make it very clear how much consumers stand to save on their bills from residential solar and how they can minimize the cost of installation.

 

Good Data Points to Highlight

  • [Climate Change] 74% of Americans say that human activities like burning fossil fuels are contributing at least “some” to climate change [Pew]
  • [Climate Impacts] 64% of Americans say that climate change is currently having at least “some” impact on their local community [Pew]
  • [Climate Accountability] 69% of Americans say that large businesses and corporations are doing too little to help reduce the effects of climate change [Pew]
  • [Climate Action] 89% of Americans support planting about a trillion trees to absorb carbon emissions [Pew]
  • [Climate Action] 84% of Americans support requiring oil and gas companies to seal methane gas leaks from oil wells [Pew]
  • [Climate Action] 83% of Americans support providing a tax credit to Americans who improve home energy efficiency [Pew]
  • [Climate Action] 79% of Americans support providing a tax credit to businesses for developing technology that captures and stores carbon emissions [Pew]
  • [Climate Action] 68% of Americans support taxing corporations based on their carbon emissions [Pew]
  • [Climate Action] 61% of Americans support requiring power plants to eliminate all carbon emissions by 2040 [Pew]
  • [Solar] Voters support net metering policies by a 68%-18% margin after reading a brief description of them, including arguments from supporters and opponents of net metering [Data for Progress]