As expected, the economy dominated all other issues in the 2024 election. Climate change ended up being a mid-tier issue for the electorate overall. Voters who named climate change as their top issue supported Harris by a wider margin than any other group. Despite the result, this was a pro-climate electorate: Around two-thirds of voters said that they’re concerned about climate impacts in their communities, and most also want the country to prioritize clean energy over fossil fuels. Trump won in spite of his climate approach, which was a clear negative with voters. Even within the Trump coalition, there are serious concerns with his handling of climate change.

The overwhelming majority of U.S. farmers want to increase funding for USDA’s voluntary conservation programs. 75% of U.S. agricultural producers support increasing long-term funding for USDA’s voluntary conservation programs. Only 5% of farmers disagreed. Approximately 90% of producers surveyed either supported or were neutral on Congress moving the remaining, unspent climate-smart agriculture funds permanently into Farm Bill conservation programs to provide additional long-term funding to help farmers and ranchers adopt climate-smart agriculture conservation practices now and in the future. 64% of producers surveyed either agreed or strongly agreed. 74% of producers surveyed said that they think USDA conservation program payments are important in helping producers improve their bottom line, reduce input costs, and modernize their operations.

Four in ten Americans say that they worry “a great deal” about global warming or climate change, and concerns are particularly high among Black and Hispanic Americans. This new analysis reveals large differences in concern across several demographic variables, in addition to partisanship. Women, for example, are 15 points more likely to say that they worry at least “a fair amount” about global warming or climate change (69%) than men (54%). Black Americans (80%) and Hispanic Americans (80%) show the greatest concerns of any demographic segment, and they are both 26 points more likely to say that they worry at least “a fair amount” about the issue than White Americans (54%). Concerns also tend to be higher the more formal education that people have received, as Americans with postgraduate degrees (71%) are the most likely to say that they worry about climate change at least “a fair amount.” By comparison, 60% of Americans without any college education and 55% of Americans with some college education say that they worry at least “a fair amount” about climate change.

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.

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. Around two-thirds of Americans say that average global temperatures are likely to increase in 2025 (67%) and that there will likely be more extreme weather events in the U.S. in 2025 than there were in 2024 (66%). 80% of people say that global temperatures are likely to increase this year. This average is 13 points higher than in the U.S. (67%), which ranked the second-lowest of any country surveyed in its beliefs about rising global temperatures. Additionally, the cross-country average of people expecting more extreme weather in their country this year is six points higher (72%) than in the U.S. (66%). That said, Americans’ beliefs that extreme weather will get worse in their country this year are roughly on par with comparable nations such as Great Britain (70%), Canada (68%), and Germany (63%).

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. 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. Democrats (78% support / 12% oppose), independents (63% support / 19% oppose), and Republicans (59% support / 24%) all say that they support net metering by wide margins. Nearly half of voters (47%) say that they’re at least “somewhat” likely in the next five years to install solar panels on their home or ask their landlord to do so, including majorities of Latino voters (66%), voters under the age of 45 (64%), Black voters (57%), and Democrats (57%).

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. 74% of Americans say that human activities like burning fossil fuels are contributing at least “some” to climate change. 64% of Americans say that climate change is currently having at least “some” impact on their local community. 69% of Americans say that large businesses and corporations are doing too little to help reduce the effects of climate change. 89% of Americans support planting about a trillion trees to absorb carbon emissions. 84% of Americans support requiring oil and gas companies to seal methane gas leaks from oil wells. 83% of Americans support providing a tax credit to Americans who improve home energy efficiency. 79% of Americans support providing a tax credit to businesses for developing technology that captures and stores carbon emissions. 68% of Americans support taxing corporations based on their carbon emissions. 61% of Americans support requiring power plants to eliminate all carbon emissions by 2040.

This post includes climate and environment headlines, data points, and key takeaways from recent public polls - including new polling about how voters in last month’s election felt about the clean energy transition and about how the election results are impacting public opinion about climate change.

The electorate has a growing awareness of the Inflation Reduction Act (IRA) and its energy efficiency and electrification incentives: 63% of respondents say they are somewhat or very interested in pursuing home electrification and efficiency upgrades. This includes 70% of Latino Americans, 66% of Black Americans, 60% of White Americans, and 58% of rural Americans. Additionally, voters report that the components of the IRA that make them more likely to support federal investments in clean energy and energy efficiency focus on potential cost savings from energy efficiency upgrades and the creation of new clean energy jobs. In addition to voters overall, majorities of voters across partisanship favor keeping various IRA incentives, rather than ending them. After reading that components of the IRA may face repeal by a new administration, voters say that losing household energy savings or economy-wide air quality improvement benefits are among the most concerning outcomes of IRA repeal.

Voters, including swing voters, side more with clean energy advocates in the debate over the country’s energy future. By a 55%-45% margin, voters side more with an argument in favor of prioritizing clean energy over an argument in favor of prioritizing oil and gas. Swing voters (defined as those who did not rule out voting for either Harris or Trump from the start of the candidates’ campaigns) side more with the argument in favor of clean energy by a 14-point margin, which is even wider than the 10-point margin that Navigator found among the overall electorate.