Report · May 16, 2024
Climate Change in the Indian Mind, 2023
By Anthony Leiserowitz, Jagadish Thaker, Marija Verner, Emily Goddard, Jennifer Carman, Seth Rosenthal, Naga Raghuveer Modala, Mallika Talwar, Yashwant Deshmukh, Gaura Shukla, Jennifer Marlon, Matthew Ballew and Matthew Goldberg
Filed under: Behaviors & Actions and Beliefs & Attitudes
3. Global Warming Risk Perceptions
3.1 Most people in India are worried about global warming.
A large majority of Indians (91%) say they are either “very worried” (59%) or “somewhat worried” (32%) about global warming. By contrast, only 8% say they are either “not very worried” (2%) or “not at all worried” (6%) about it.
The percentage of people in India who say they are either “very” or “somewhat” worried about global warming is 10 percentage points higher than in 2021–2022. Among those, the percentage who say they are “very worried” is 9 percentage points higher than in 2021–2022 and 39% higher than in 2011.
3.2 Large majorities of people in India say global warming will cause harm.
Large majorities of people in India say global warming will cause either a “great deal” or a “moderate amount” of harm to plant and animal species (83%), people in India (82%), future generations of people (81%), people in their own community (78%), and themselves and their own family (74%).
3.3 About half of people in India think Indians are already being harmed by global warming.
About half of people in India think Indians are already being harmed by global warming (53%). Fewer think people in India will be harmed within 10 years (16%), 25 years (9%), 50 years (6%), or 100 years (2%), and only 4% think global warming will never harm people in India, while 7% say they don’t know.
3.4 People in India think global warming will have dangerous impacts.
Many people in India think global warming will have a variety of dangerous impacts. Half or more think global warming will cause “many more” severe heat waves (60%), extinctions of plant and animal species (57%), droughts and water shortages (56%), severe cyclones (54%), and famines and food shortages (50%), and 46% think global warming will cause “many more” severe floods.
3.5 A large majority of people in India say global warming is personally important to them.
About nine in 10 people in India (92%) say global warming is either “extremely important” (38%), “very important” (35%), or “somewhat important” (20%) to them personally. Very few say it is either “not very important” (2%) or “not at all important” (3%), while 2% say they don’t know.
