New polling shows that more Australians than ever believe human activity is entirely or mainly responsible for climate change, but only 13 per cent say Australia’s conservative Liberal-National government is doing a good job tackling climate change.
A survey by social research firm Ipsos shows 46 per cent of Australians now agree climate change is “entirely or mainly” caused by human activity.
That is the highest share since Ipsos began asking the question in an annual survey of Australians’ attitudes to climate change in 2010.
Another 33 per cent say climate change is “partly caused by human activity and partly caused by natural processes” while 11 per cent said it is “entirely or mainly” caused by natural processes only.
Only four per cent say “there is no such thing as climate change”, a share that has remained steady for the past decade.
It found almost half of Australians now feel that “honouring the Paris Agreement should be a key priority” for this country.
And many Australians want to go even further.
Forty per cent said they would like to see an emissions reduction target set that goes beyond reducing emissions by 26 to 28 per cent on 2005 levels by 2030 as set out in the United Nations sponsored Paris Agreement.
The survey found a record 65 per cent say climate change is already affecting Australia and is not just a challenge for the future.
An all-time high 52 per cent agreed climate change is causing more frequent and extreme droughts, up from 46 per cent a year earlier.
The proportion that said Australia is already experiencing more frequent and extreme bushfires due to climate change reached 48 per cent, up from 46 per cent a year earlier.
A record proportion also said Australia was grappling with more extreme storms events (48 per cent) and floods (47 per cent) as a result of climate change.
Nearly half of those surveyed (47 per cent) said climate change is causing the destruction of the Great Barrier Reef.
The share of Australians rating the federal government’s management of climate change as “fairly or very good” has fallen from 18 per cent to just 13 per cent during the past year.
The share rating the federal government’s management of climate change as “fairly or very poor” has risen from 41 per cent to 50 per cent in that period.
In a statement, Ipsos said the poll “uncovered a growing momentum for action on climate change and acceptance of the role of humans in causing it”.
“We also found that the majority of Australians believe that they will not be negatively impacted by a move towards renewable energy and that support for climate action by the government is on the rise.”
The survey of a representative sample of 1000 people was conducted in December 2018.
Ipsos researcher Jennifer Brook said there has been a sharp increase in agreement that both the international community and Australia need to do more to address climate change.
“With most Australians thinking we are already seeing the impacts of climate change there is likely to be only an increasing call for action from government and businesses to mitigate the causes and adapt to the impacts of climate change amongst the public,” she said.
Eighty-four per cent of Australians thought that increasing the amount of power generated from renewable energy sources should be an essential or high priority.
A much bigger share of the population believed the shift towards renewable energy would have a positive impact on the economy (39 per cent) than the share that thought the economic impact would be negative (24 per cent).
The separate Ipsos Issues Monitor, which asks respondents select the three most important issues facing the nation, shows there has been a rapid rise in the community’s anxiety about the state of the environment.
The share of respondents nominating the environment as a key challenge has doubled over the past three years.
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WE’RE BUILDING A PLATFORM WITH A CLEAR FOCUS ON THE ENVIRONMENT, CULTURAL AND SOCIAL GOOD. CONTRIBUTE AND TOGETHER WE CAN MAKE AN IMPACT.
