Earth Equity News

International Survey Finds Broad Support for More Aggressive Climate Change Action that Congress or Copenhagen Envision. Press Release, WWViews.org, October 22, 2009. "The first-ever deliberative global survey of citizen opinion, World Wide View on Global Warming (WWNews) has found that people from diverse backgrounds in the US and worldwide overwhelmingly want faster action, deeper GHG emissions cuts and stronger enforcement than either US climate legislation proposals or Copenhagen treaty conference preparations are currently contemplating. Among the survey's findings: -- 90% of U. S. participants say it is urgent to reach a tough, new agreement at the UN Climate Change Conference in Copenhagen in December and not punt to subsequent meetings; -- 89% said by 2020 emissions should be cut 25-40% below 1990 levels (the Kerry Boxer Senate bill would cut US emissions 20% below 2005 levels); -- 71% want nations that fail to meet their obligations under a new agreement to be penalized severely or significantly; -- 69% believe the price of fossil fuels should be increased.
"WWViews gathered its data from daylong citizen deliberations in Atlanta, Boston, Denver, Los Angeles, and Phoenix, as well as in cities throughout Africa, Asia, Australia, Europe and Latin America. It showed citizens of all 38 countries, even low-income ones, are willing to take responsibility for lowering emissions, and to pay to do so. Of the 38 countries, China's citizens were least inclined to introduce 2020 targets for fast-growing economies, yet even so, 45% support it and 52% support limiting emissions growth. 'Our deliberative method yielded very different results from polls, which purport to show much more diffident attitudes to climate change, and even some skepticism about it. But I'd argue our data is much more accurate,' said Dr. Richard Worthington, WWViews U.S. coordinator. 'For one thing, for a dozen countries [the Maldives, Saint Lucia, Uruguay, Norway, Switzerland, Cameroon, Ethiopia, Malawi, Mali, Mozambique, Uganda and Vietnam], our data is the only data, because we worked in places so far excluded from international polling on climate change. For another, we elicited citizen opinion through informed, daylong deliberations, not through knee-jerk answers to carefully circumscribed questions."