Public Resource
Environmental Polling Roundup – January 10th, 2025
David Gold, Environmental Polling Consortium

This post includes climate and environment headlines, data points, and key takeaways from recent public polls - including new polling about Americans’ issue priorities for 2025 and a new international report comparing different countries’ expectations about climate impacts this year.

 

Headlines 

Navigator – Voters see climate/environment as one of the biggest disconnects between their own priorities and the priorities of Trump and Republicans in Congress [Release, Deck]

AP-NORC – More Democrats name climate/environment as a top priority for the country in 2025 than any other issue [Release, Topline, Full Report]

Ipsos – Most Americans expect more extreme weather and rising global temperatures in 2025, though the U.S. public still lags behind comparable countries in predicting climate change impacts [Release, Full Report]

 

Key Takeaways

Voters see climate/environment as one of the biggest points of difference between their own priorities and the priorities of Trump and Republicans in Congress. Navigator finds large incongruities when voters are asked to name the issues that the president and Congress should focus most on and the issues that Trump and Republicans are focused most on. Relative to their own personal priorities, voters believe that Trump and Republicans are focusing much more on immigration and too little on climate/environment, the cost of living, health care, housing, and Social Security and Medicare. And among voters’ top 20 issue priorities, climate/environment is the one that voters believe Trump and Republicans are least focused on.

These findings show that voters recognize that Trump and congressional Republicans are out of step with the public on climate and environmental issues. Further, of all the various threats posed by a second Trump administration, the notions that he will roll back climate progress and environmental protections rank among the most credible to voters.

Climate/environment remains a singularly important priority for the Democratic electorate. In their own assessment of the public’s top issue priorities, AP-NORC finds that Democrats are more likely to name climate/environment as a top priority for the country in 2025 than any other issue. This is the third straight time that AP-NORC have found climate/environment to be Democrats’ top concern going into the new year, following similar surveys conducted late in 2022 and 2023.

The degree to which Democratic voters now prioritize climate change has gone somewhat under the radar in political media, but is important for understanding what mobilizes the Democratic base as it prepares to mount a second Trump “Resistance” – particularly as a fight over IRA repeal looms on the horizon and a handful of vulnerable Republican House members will hold deciding votes.