Report · Jun 9, 2026
Climate Change in the American Mind: Politics & Policy, Spring 2026
By Anthony Leiserowitz, John Kotcher, Seth Rosenthal, Emily Goddard, Joshua Ettinger, Teresa Myers, Jennifer Carman, Marija Verner, Julia Fine, Emily Richards, Matthew Goldberg, Jennifer Marlon and Edward Maibach
Filed under: Policy & Politics
2. Global Warming and Clean Energy as Government Priorities
2.1 About half of registered voters think global warming should be a “high” or “very high” priority for the president and Congress.
About half of registered voters (49%) think global warming should be a “high” or “very high” priority for the president and Congress. This includes large majorities of liberal Democrats (84%) and moderate/conservative Democrats (70%). About one in three liberal/moderate Republicans (36%) think global warming should be a high or very high priority. Few conservative Republicans (11%) think global warming should be a priority.
2.2 Most registered voters think developing sources of clean energy should be a “high” or “very high” priority for the president and Congress.
More than half of registered voters (58%) think developing sources of clean energy should be a “high” or “very high” priority for the president and Congress. This includes large majorities of liberal Democrats (90%) and moderate/conservative Democrats (77%) as well as 46% of liberal/moderate Republicans. In contrast, only 22% of conservative Republicans think developing sources of clean energy should be a priority.
