How is KR 8.1 Tracking?
Do voters really care about climate?
Our Voters key result measures the subject’s importance to the electorate. Despite recent headway, the climate crisis has yet to place among the top two issues in elections or opinion polls in most top-emitting nations. It regularly takes a back seat to the economy, immigration, and health care. To build the climate movement we need, we must inspire more urgency.
We’re tracking the climate issue and its priority among voters across the top five emitters.
Greta Thunberg’s School Strike for the Climate movement helped change views in Europe in 2019, as climate rose to become the #2 issue across the continent, up from #7 previously.
Yet in the run-up to the 2020 presidential election in the United States, according to a Gallup poll, only 3 percent of voters rated the climate crisis as the top problem facing the nation. It ranked behind COVID-19, the economy, poor leadership, and race relations. To this date, climate and the environment barely crack the electorate’s top ten issues.
Data for KR 8.1 on the top issues for voters is sourced from Gallup (U.S.), which is updated monthly, Eurobarometer (EU), updated biannually, and IPSOS, a global survey, updated monthly, across 27 nations. Reliable polling data not available for China and Russia.