Climate Change Communication

 From the Yale Program on Climate Change Communication YPCCC

Dear Friends,

In March and April 2022, the Yale Program on Climate Change Communication (YPCCC) conducted an international survey in collaboration with Data for Good at Meta to examine public climate change knowledge, attitudes, policy preferences, and behavior among Facebook users in nearly 200 countries and territories worldwide.

Prior research by YPCCC and the George Mason University Center for Climate Change Communication has found that people in the United States can be categorized into six distinct groups – Alarmed, Concerned, Cautious, Disengaged, Doubtful, and Dismissive – based on their beliefs and attitudes about climate change (Global Warming’s Six Americas).

The Alarmed are convinced climate change is happening, human-caused, and an urgent threat, and strongly support climate policies. The Concerned think human-caused climate change is happening and is a serious threat, and support climate policies. However, they tend to believe that climate impacts are still distant in time and space, thus the issue remains a lower priority. The Cautious have not yet made up their minds: Is climate change happening? Is it human-caused? Is it serious? The Disengaged know little to nothing about climate change and rarely if ever hear about it. The Doubtful do not think climate change is happening or believe it is just a natural cycle. And the Dismissive are convinced climate change is not happening, human-caused, or a threat, and oppose most climate policies.

The international survey conducted by YPCCC and Data for Good at Meta included the Six Americas Super Short Survey (SASSY), a tool that categorizes respondents into this six audiences framework with just 4 questions. Ideally, one would conduct an in-depth study to develop a tailored segmentation of climate change audiences within each country. However, the Six-Audiences framework and SASSY tool can be used as a first-order approximation and a means of cross-national comparison using an identical set of questions that are relevant in all national contexts.

We find that the Alarmed are the largest group in about three-fourths (80 of the 110) of the countries and territories surveyed. In fact, half or more respondents in twenty-nine countries and territories are Alarmed: the five countries with the largest percentage of Alarmed are Chile (65%), Mexico (64%), Malawi (63%), Bolivia (62%), and Sri Lanka (61%). Czechia and Yemen have the smallest percentages of Alarmed (both 9%). In the United States, about one-third of respondents are Alarmed (34%).

By contrast, relatively few respondents in any country or territory are Doubtful or Dismissive. Among major emitters, the United States has the largest proportion of Doubtful and Dismissive, more than one in five (22%).The United States is also less Alarmed about global warming than most other top carbon-emitting countries.

There are substantial differences among the 15 nations responsible for the largest annual shares of global carbon emissions (this study did not include China, Russia, or Iran). Among these countries, the largest proportion of Alarmed are in Mexico (64%), followed by Brazil (59%), and India (55%).

The United States is the second largest annual producer of the carbon emissions that cause global warming. Yet, relatively few people in the United States are Alarmed about global warming, compared to other top emitters. The U.S. and Germany have the fourth-smallest percentage of Alarmed (34%), after the United Kingdom (31%), Saudi Arabia (29%), and Indonesia (27%). On the other end of the Six Audiences spectrum, the countries with the largest percentages of Doubtful or Dismissive respondents are the United States (22%), Saudi Arabia (17%), and Australia (16%). 

The data in this report are based on a survey of 108,946 Facebook monthly active users, aged 18 and older. The survey was conducted from March 25 – April 14, 2022.