Voters consistently report holding strong favorable views of solar energy. However, despite this positive sentiment, just under half of voters report being likely to consider rooftop solar installation, highlighting a key gap between sentiments to solar and action. Younger voters and renters have greater support for solar, highlighting the potential for future solar adoption as they become homeowners or encourage their landlord to adopt solar. These findings highlight the importance of education to bridge the gap between consumer interest and action on residential solar adoption. Investments in education about the benefits of solar, including reduced energy costs – coupled with outreach to ensure voters are hearing about targeted financial incentives to bring down the upfront costs of installation – could help remove financial barriers and accelerate solar deployment and the transition to a more sustainable energy future.

Arizona voters widely agree that climate change is affecting them now, and want state policymakers to do more about it – including transitioning more to solar and wind power. By a 77%-23% margin, Arizona voters say that the state should continue rather than repeal policies that encourage the transition to clean energy like wind and solar. 77% of Arizona voters agree that using more clean energy like wind and solar would create quality jobs and strengthen Arizona’s economy. 71% of Arizona voters agree that using more clean energy like wind and solar would save Arizona families money. 70% of Arizona voters agree that climate change is already having a serious impact on their part of the country.

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.