Climate change is the top security concern in a poll conducted by the Washington-based Pew Research Centre, followed by Islamist terrorism and cyber attacks while respondents in a growing number of countries worried about the power and influence of the United States.
In 13 of 26 countries, people listed climate change as the top global threat, with the Islamic State militant group topping the list in eight and cyber attacks in four, the non-profit, non-partisan Pew Research Centre said in its report.
Worries about climate change have increased sharply since 2013, with double-digit percentage point increases seen in countries including the United States, Mexico, France, Britain, South Africa and Kenya, according to the poll of 27,612 people conducted between May and August 2018.
“Overall we’ve seen that general climate concerns and specifically global climate change had been at the top of the list or near the top of the list along with terrorism in the five years in which we’ve been doing these questions,” said Jacob Poushter, associate director at Pew Research Centre.
The Pew findings show in 2013, before the United Nations sponsored Paris Agreement on climate change was signed, an average of 56 per cent of people in 23 countries listed global warming as a top threat.
Since then, France and Mexico have recorded the biggest increases in public concern about climate change, but the US, the United Kingdom, Germany, Spain, Canada, Kenya, Poland and South Africa have also been recorded double-digit increases in public concern.
North Korea’s nuclear program and the global economy were also significant concerns, while respondents in Poland named Russian power and influence as the top threat.
The largest shift in sentiment centred on the US under President Doland Trump, it said, with a median of 45 per cent of people naming US power and influence as a threat in 2018, up from 25 per cent in 2013, when Barack Obama was US president.
In 10 countries, including Germany, Japan and South Korea, roughly half of respondents or more saw US power and influence as a major threat to their nation, up from eight in 2017 and three in 2013, the poll showed.
In Mexico, where those concerns have spiked since the election of President Trump, the percentage jumped to 64 per cent, the poll showed.
President Trump has railed against illegal migration and the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA), and is pressing to build a wall between the two countries.
In 2018, a median of 61 per cent of respondents across all countries represented viewed cyber attacks as a serious concern, up from 54 percent in 2017.
The number of countries that saw Islamic State as a threat fell by double-digit percentage points in Israel, Spain, the US and Japan.
