Public Resource
In Response to Climate Change, Citizens in Advanced Economies Are Willing To Alter How They Live and Work
James Bell, Jacob Poushter, Moira Fagan and Christine Huang. Pew Research Center

Most Americans are willing to make changes to their own lives to help reduce the effects of climate change. Ideology plays a larger role in shaping Americans’ climate attitudes than it does in other advanced economies. Three-fifths of Americans (60%) are at least “somewhat” concerned about climate change harming them personally, which is lower than any country surveyed aside from the Netherlands (59%) and Sweden (44%). In comparable economies such as Canada (68%), the U.K. (71%), and Germany (75%), two-thirds or more are concerned about climate change affecting them. There is a far wider gap between left- and right-leaning citizens’ climate attitudes in the United States than in any other country surveyed. Whether looking at personal concerns about climate (59-point gap between left and right in the U.S.) or willingness to make lifestyle changes to help reduce the effects of climate change (49-point gap between left and right in the U.S.), the difference in responses between left- and right-leaning Americans is much bigger than in any other country surveyed. Liberal and moderate Americans have similar climate attitudes as their ideological counterparts in other advanced economies, but conservative Americans are outliers even within the international right wing. U.S. moderates are equally or more willing to change their lifestyles to reduce the effects of climate change as those in the ideological center in Canada (82%), Australia (80%), and Germany (75%).