Report · Nov 11, 2025
Climate Change and Energy in the Indonesian Mind
By Anthony Leiserowitz, Hilyatuz Zakiyyah, Jennifer Carman, Seth Rosenthal, Emily Goddard, Marija Verner, Emily Richards and Jennifer Marlon
Filed under: Behaviors & Actions, Beliefs & Attitudes and Policy & Politics
6. Personal and Social Engagement with Climate Change
6.1. A large majority of Indonesians say climate change is personally important to them.
A large majority of Indonesians (88%) say climate change is either “extremely important” (12%), “very important” (51%), or “somewhat important” (25%) to them personally. This is eight times as many as the 11% who say climate change is either “not very important” (10%) or “not at all important” (1%) to them personally.
6.2. Most Indonesians rarely hear about climate change.
Just over one-third of Indonesians (37%) hear about climate change in the media either “at least once a month” (16%) or “at least once a week” (21%). A similar percentage (39%) hear about climate change in the media only either “once a year or less often” (16%) or “never” (23%).
Similarly, 37% of Indonesians hear about climate change on social media either “at least once a month” (17%) or “at least once a week” (20%). More (42%) hear about climate change on social media only either “once a year or less often” (15%) or “never” (27%).
Even fewer Indonesians (25%) hear people they know talk about climate change “at least once a month” (14%) or “at least once a week” (11%), while more than half (53%) hear people they know talk about it either “once a year or less often” (19%) or “never” (34%).
6.3. Most Indonesians think their family and friends want them to take action to reduce climate change, but fewer see family and friends making an effort to do so themselves.
Social science research has shown that two types of social norms can have a powerful influence on people’s behavior: injunctive norms (the belief that friends and family expect you to behave in a given way) and descriptive norms (the belief that friends and family are themselves behaving in that way)Schultz, P. W., Nolan, J. M., Cialdini, R. B., Goldstein, N. J., & Griskevicius, V. (2007). The constructive, destructive, and reconstructive power of social norms. Psychological Science, 18(5), 429-434. doi:10.1111/j.1467-9280.2007.01917.x .
About three in four Indonesians (76%) say they perceive an injunctive norm, saying it is either “extremely” (3%), “very” (20%), or “moderately” (53%) important to their family and friends that they take action to reduce climate change. Far fewer, however (27%), perceive a descriptive norm, saying their family and friends make either “a great deal of effort” (1%), “a lot of effort” (6%), or “a moderate amount of effort” (20%) to reduce climate change.