A majority of Labor voters think the Albanese government is not doing enough to prepare for or adapt to the impacts of the climate crisis, according to a long-running national poll.
The Climate of the Nation survey of voters, now in its 16th year and managed by the progressive thinktank the Australia Institute, found 52% of ALP supporters think the government should be doing more to prepare for the impacts of climate-related extreme events. Only 26% said it was doing enough, 10% too much and 12% were unsure.
Across supporters of all parties and candidates, 47% of the poll’s 2,089 respondents said the government was not doing enough to prepare or adapt to climate change.
The survey, conducted in June by polling company YouGov, has been released as communities across significant parts of the country are being advised to prepare for what authorities say is likely to be the most significant bushfire season since the 2019-20 black summer fires. The government committed $27.4m in the federal budget to develop a national climate risk assessment and adaptation plan.
The Climate of the Nation report suggests contradictions in what people think about the climate crisis. There was strong and often increasing support for requiring fossil fuel companies to pay higher taxes to reflect their contribution to climate pollution, and significant concern that the climate crisis would cause damage in the future, but a dip in certainty that it was already causing extreme weather events despite strengthening scientific evidence.
On the latter, the proportion of people who said they believed the climate crisis was causing the polar ice caps to melt dropped from 54% a year ago to 46%. Only 42% said they believed climate change was already causing more heatwaves, extremely hot days and bushfires, down from 52%. And only 41% said they believed climate change was already causing the destruction of the Great Barrier Reef, down from 48%.
These changes come in a year in which scientists say the evidence that the human-driven climate crisis is having an impact clearer than ever. It is expected to be the hottest year on record, with significant parts of the planet having suffered unprecedented heatwaves and wildfires, and sea ice around Antarctica having retreated to an historic low. The Great Barrier Reef last year suffered its fourth mass coral bleaching event in seven years.
On the bigger question of whether climate change is real and happening, the results were clear-cut. An overwhelming majority – 77% – said climate change was occurring, down slightly from 80% a year ago, and only 12% said it wasn’t. And 71% said they were either very or fairly concerned about climate change, down from 75% a year ago.
A majority of respondents, including most Labor and Coalition voters, supported taxing fossil fuel industries to reflect their contribution to the climate crisis, repeating a finding in previous years. Specifically:
74% supported a “polluter-pays tax” applied to businesses based on how much they emit
66% supported a tax on the windfall profits of the oil and gas industry, up from 61% last year
59% supported levy on fossil fuel exports to fund climate adaptation programs
Other findings included:
Answers on coal and gas mining were contradictory. Two-thirds of people said governments should plan to phase them out, and 53% supported a moratorium on new coalmines. But 46% said the benefits of coal and gas outweighed the negative impacts
70% wanted coal-fired power plants to be phased out, compared with 79% a year ago. About a third – 34% – said they should be phased out by 2030
An overwhelming majority (75%) suggested they were concerned the climate crisis would make insurance more expensive and disrupt supply chains so that it became harder to buy necessities
The report concluded the results showed concern about the climate crisis remained high despite the impact of the cost-of-living crisis.
The Australia Institute’s climate and energy program director, Polly Hemming, said the survey was undertaken as Australians were facing “unprecedented challenges on multiple fronts”. “Despite these pressures, a strong majority of Australians want more ambitious climate action,” she said.
The independent senator David Pocock, who will launch the report on Wednesday, said the report reinforced the “very clear message Australians sent at the last election when they elected a record number of parliamentarians pushing for much greater ambition on climate change”.
