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Climate actions matter. Roughly 60% of emissions cuts will need to come through changes to the way that energy is consumed if net-zero targets are to be achieved. This also means people’s actions remain central to how fast (and how fairly) this transition takes place.
The Climate Change Committee has been clear that the government needs to empower and inform households and communities to make low-carbon choices, and has calls for a step-change in government approaches to public engagement reflect the scale of the emissions cuts that must come through people supporting and undertaking shifts in behaviours (e.g. eating less meat) or adopting new technologies (e.g. heat pumps).
Alongside this, climate activism, protests and demonstrations – which can be major driving forces of climate salience – have shifted forms in recent years, with groups like XR now seeking to ‘prioritise relationships over roadblocks’.
In this context, how are insights changing in the space of action and activism?
The centre for Climate Change & Social Transformations (CAST) carried out a set of global surveys with over 3000 participants from Brazil, China, Sweden and the UK in 2020 (the survey is repeated annually)
Large majorities from across borders, age divides and financial backgrounds were positive on the need for action on climate change.
Click through to the CAST dashboard to filter the results further.
Hundreds of thousands of people took to the streets on Friday 20th September 2019 in what was the biggest environmental protest in the UK to date. A rally in central London was attended by around 100,000 people.
From August 20th 2018 when Greta Thunberg first skipped school to protest for more action on climate change, to one of the largest movements of climate change activism across the world, the Fridays For Future movement resulted in 2019 being termed the “year of the climate strike“. Reuters present a timeline of the growth of Greta’s individual protest to global movement of activism.