Comment: Are international climate negotiations on the public’s radar?

In the UK, there’s a widespread belief that climate change demands international cooperation: many (although not all) parts of society understand climate change as a ‘shared global crisis’. There is an appreciation of the need for collaboration with other nations to tackle climate, and for support of poorer nations.

A majority want the government to play a leadership role in setting ambitious global targets. And there is some evidence that during COP26 – hosted by the UK in Glasgow in 2021 – among public audiences there was a relatively optimistic sense of progress being made.

But COP26 may have been an anomaly, as by the time COP27 came around only a minority (24%) felt that Rishi Sunak was showing leadership: his hesitation around attending in person, so early in his premiership, is likely to have influenced this judgement.

Many people in the UK were sceptical that COP27 would speed up climate action, a trend that has continued in the run-up to COP28.

Although the UK public reports feeling more familiar with international climate conferences (relative to other national populations), knowledge is still likely to be very limited, and scepticism about the purpose, nature and effectiveness of international climate conferences is prevalent.

It makes sense, then, that people feel that claims of UK leadership must be well evidenced in order to be credible. Having explored the meaning of COPs with one British audience segment in 2021, the patriotic ‘Loyal Nationals’, Climate Outreach found that explaining the value and purpose of negotiations is crucial, and the actions of leaders (i.e. if they ‘practice domestically what they preach internationally’) is also a big influence on whether negotiations are given credence by the public.