67% Urban Indians Confident In Govt's Gameplan for Tackling Climate Change: Report

At least 67 per cent of urban Indians believe that the government has a clear plan in place for how the government, businesses, and people should work together to tackle climate change, according to a global survey by Ipsos that captured public opinion on climate change. In comparison, only one in three global citizens (31 per cent) held this view about their own governments.

Who should act?

Firstly, the citizens have put the onus on the government and believe if the local government does not act now to combat climate change, it would be failing the people of its country. Interestingly, this view is endorsed by not only more number of global citizens (61 per cent), but even 67 per cent Indians. Secondly, the dominant view among global citizens (59 per cent) and 67 per cent Indians exhorted businesses in the local country to act else they would be failing their employees and customers.

Thirdly, the respondents polled put the onus on citizens, exhorting individuals to act now to combat climate change, else they would be failing future generations. This view was predominantly shared by global citizens (63 per cent) and 69 per cent urban Indians.

Further, there was a strong view that the economic cost of climate change was a bigger challenge than the economic cost of measures to reduce climate change and this was endorsed by global citizens (42 per cent) and the APAC markets of Indonesia (54 per cent), Singapore (48 per cent), Malaysia (44 per cent), Australia (42 per cent), India (42 per cent), South Korea (42 per cent) and Thailand (36 per cent). Japan had least agreeing, at 22 per cent.

Who is leading the pack?

At least 1 in 3 (31 per cent) global citizens believe their local country is leading the world in the fight against climate change. 71 per cent urban Indians held this view.

Notably, there was a strong belief emerging among global citizens (66 per cent) and 76 per cent Indians that their country needs to do more in their fight against climate change.

The survey also shows citizens’ strong views on penalizing those who are responsible for the

climate crisis. They believe that the developed countries (such as the United States, United Kingdom, Canada, Germany, and France) who have contributed most to the climate emergency, by producing the most carbon emissions, should pay more to solve the problem. The consensus was unanimous among global citizens (62 per cent) and among 67 per cent Indians.

Though citizens polled agreed that developed nations were already at the forefront of fighting climate change, endorsed by global citizens (46 per cent), and urban Indians (70 per cent).

At the same time, developed nations were expected to do more in combating climate change, unanimously endorsed by global citizens (70 per cent) and 74 per cent urban Indians.

3 in 4 global citizens (75 per cent) and 72 per cent urban Indians agree that to tackle climate change completely, all nations need to work together.

Some nations felt they have been made to sacrifice a lot in the fight against climate change. With 1 in 3 global citizens (34 per cent) agreeing and 67 per cent Indians endorsing this view.

What are we going to do?

India is the only odd ball with 62 per cent agreeing the futility of changing one’s own behavior to tackle climate change as it would have minimal impact. More global citizens disagreed. Likewise, barring India (64 per cent), global citizens rejected paying more of their income in taxes than they currently do now to help prevent climate change.

65 per cent urban Indians agree climate change is beyond their control – it’s too late to do anything about it, while global citizens disagreed that it is too late to do anything about the environment.

70 per cent of the global citizens polled believe if everyone made small changes in their everyday lives this could have a big impact on tackling climate change. Similar view echoed among urban Indians (69 per cent).

3 in 10 global citizens (30 per cent) and 67 per cent of Indians polled believe now is not the right time to invest in measures to reduce climate change given the tough economic conditions.

Indians are adopting the Ostrich Policy with 62 per cent believing the adverse impact of climate change is somewhere in the future and not important for everyone to worry about. While global citizens (51 per cent) were seen to be deeply concerned about the impact of climate change and disagreed it would not happen anytime soon.

Citizens were willing to take personal actions to mitigate the impact on the environment, with these 3 actions across global markets including Asia: Global citizens say their top action would be a financial incentive, or tax cut to allow them to make more environmentally friendly purchases of goods and services (38 per cent); having easy access to information on the steps which they could take every day (36 per cent) and seeing the impact of climate driven weather events in their country (34 per cent).

Perils of Perception

Citizens said they were willing to adopt different ways in which households could change their behaviours to reduce global greenhouse gas emissions (or carbon footprints).

Global citizens and most respondents believe switching to purchasing renewable electricity (39 per cent), recycling (33 per cent) and less packaging (25 per cent), would be the best way to change behaviors.

Interesting behavioral alterations emerged in some of the Asian markets. South Korea (41 per cent) and Singapore (35 per cent) citizens said they would shift to public transport. 26 per cent Indians said they would have a vegan diet. Malaysia (37 per cent) and Japan (31 per cent) said they would choose recycling.

Who are the biggest contributors to global warming?

Global citizens (28 per cent) and the citizens and urban Indians (37 per cent) believe usage of products that deplete the ozone layer is the biggest contributor to global warming. 23 per cent in Australia believe air pollution caused by transport (cars, trucks, planes, trains, ships, etc) is the biggest contributor to global warming.

However, in reality the biggest contributor to global warming was industry, electricity, and heat production, followed by deforestation, agriculture, and other land use changes.

Hamish Munro, CEO, Ipsos Asia Pacific said, “On Earth Day, when we take stock of how we are doing in our crusade of mitigating the impact of climate change, our survey shows the enormity of the climate change crisis. Saving the planet now rests with the government, businesses, brands, and individuals. Every citizen has a role to play by altering their personal behaviours, making conscious, eco-friendly and green choices, to reduce the adverse impact on our planet.”

Amit Adarkar, CEO Ipsos India said, “Indians believing the government has a structured and concrete plan on how the govt, businesses and citizens should be working together, to combat the adverse impact of climate change, that cuts much ice as there are some initiatives where we see a convergence of collective goals. Ban on usage of single use plastics for instance; adoption of green fuels and corpus budgeted for ramping up of electrification infrastructure; solar energy focus. Indians adopting the proverbial Ostrich policy believing no immediate threat from climate change is worrying. As the fastest growing market in G20, India could be suffering from a wave of optimism that could dilute the seriousness of climate change, despite freak weather events in the recent past.”