Later is too late: What moves and motivates people to support climate action
November 2023
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Zero Ideas is proud to have worked with Potential Energy, the Yale Program on Climate Change Communication and The Meliore Foundation on one of the broadest and most comprehensive global message testing studies ever conducted. With nearly 60,000 respondents across 23 countries, we examined what moves and motivates people to support climate actions and specific pro-climate policies, across the G20 and beyond. You can explore the data country by country using our interactive global data explorer.
Our research shows that global support for climate action is high, but good messaging is essential to achieve policy gains.
The world is united in wanting governments to act immediately on climate. On average across the 23 countries we surveyed, 71% of people agree with the statement, ‘I support immediate action by the government to address climate change;” only 13% disagree.
In many countries, this support comes from across the political spectrum. While the issue is severely polarized in the United States, that is a unique case. It is much less so elsewhere, and in some countries – Indonesia, Nigeria, India, Türkiye, Kenya – support is actually higher on the political Right. We are missing vital and available support if we position climate action as an exclusively ‘progressive’ idea.
While overall support for government action on climate is high, support for specific climate policy framings, positioned head-to-head with an opposing argument, are a closer call. We tested 18 policies, each framed in 3 different ways, across 23 countries (a total of 1,242 different tests.) Across policies and within countries, there are often significant variations in levels of support, and it’s clear that some policies are closer to a coin toss.
To understand why, we explored people’s motivations and expectations related to climate change and climate action. Overwhelmingly, across countries and demographics, the dominant reason for action on climate change is protecting the planet for the future generations. (This reason was 12 times more popular than creating jobs.) In our message testing, a narrative that responds directly to this motivation lifts support for climate action substantially, across all countries, politics and demographics. ‘Later is too late,’ says this narrative, because ‘it’s putting our children’s futures at risk’ and ‘it’s our responsibility to leave behind a world that’s safe and liveable for future generations.’
If people’s motivation is about assuring their children’s future, it’s not surprising that they are resistant to actions that threaten that future. Thus we find that although most people in all countries have a strong sense of generational responsibility, most expect we can do what we need to do without lowering our standard of living; and in most countries, most people believe we need to make gradual, step-by-step changes to our society, not big, disruptive changes.
By understanding and responding to what really motivates people, we can strengthen their support, defend against opposing forces, and create the social and political environment that meaningful climate action depends on.
Please download the report below, and let us know your reactions.
