Yale Program on Climate Change Communication

2. Global Warming Awareness and Beliefs

2.1 Most people in India know just a little about global warming or have never heard of it.

In order to make informed decisions about how to respond to a threat, individuals, policymakers, and societies must be aware of the threat and have at least a basic understanding of it. Only 10% of people in India say they know “a lot” about global warming, while 34% say they know “something” about it. By contrast, the majority of Indians (54%) say either that they know “just a little” about global warming (22%), or that they have “never heard of it” (32%).

It is important to note, however, that lack of awareness of the issue does not mean that individuals are not worried about climate-related environmental hazards, as evidenced in Section 1 of this report (“Local Environmental Hazards: Vulnerability and Resilience”). This suggests that many people in India have observed changes in their local climate and weather patterns without understanding that these changes are often related to the broader issue of global warming.

2.2 A large majority of people in India think global warming is happening.

After being asked about their level of knowledge about global warming, respondents were given a short definition of it: “Global warming refers to the idea that the world’s average temperature has been increasing over the past 150 years, may be increasing more in the future, and that the world’s climate and weather patterns may change as a result.” They were then asked, “What do you think? Do you think that global warming is happening?”

After reading the short description, a large majority of people in India (78%) said they think global warming is happening. By comparison, only 9% of people in India said they think global warming is not happening, while 13% said they don’t know.

2.3 A majority of people in India think global warming is primarily human-caused.

A majority of people in India say that if global warming is happening, it is caused mostly by human activities (52%), while 38% say it is caused mostly by natural changes in the environment. Few say there is some other cause (1%), that there is not any cause because it’s not happening (2%), or that they don’t know (6%).

2.4 A large majority of people in India say they have personally experienced the effects of global warming.

A large majority of people in India (85%) either “strongly agree” (61%) or “somewhat agree” (25%) that they have personally experienced the effects of global warming. By contrast, only 12% either “strongly disagree” (6%) or “somewhat disagree” (6%), and few (2%) say they don’t know.

The total percentage of people in India who either “strongly” or “somewhat” agree that they have personally experienced global warming is 11 percentage points higher than in our previous survey conducted in 2021–2022. The percentage who “strongly agree” is 7 percentage points higher than in 2021–2022 and 43 percentage points higher than in our first survey in 2011.

2.5 Most people in India think global warming affects weather and monsoons.

Most people in India think global warming affects weather in their local area (71%) and monsoons in India (76%) either “a lot” or “some.” This includes 48% of people who say that global warming affects weather in their local area a lot and 54% of people who say that global warming affects monsoons in India a lot. By comparison, few people say that global warming does not affect weather in their local area at all (5%) or that it does not affect monsoons in India at all (4%).