Report · Aug 13, 2025
Climate Change in the Indian Mind, Spring 2025
By Anthony Leiserowitz, Jagadish Thaker, Jennifer Carman, Emily Goddard, Seth Rosenthal, Marija Verner, Mallika Talwar, Emily Richards, Yashwant Deshmukh, Gaura Shukla and Jennifer Marlon
Filed under: Beliefs & Attitudes and Behaviors & Actions
2. Global Warming Risk Perceptions
2.1 A large majority of people in India are worried about global warming.
A large majority of Indians (90%) are either “very worried” (58%) or “somewhat worried” (32%) about global warming. By contrast, only 9% say they are either “not very worried” (3%) or “not at all worried” (6%) about it (refer to data tables, p. 44).
The percentage of people in India who are worried about global warming is 30 percentage points higher than in our first survey in 2011, and the percentage who are “very worried” is 38 percentage points higher (refer to data tables, p. 44).
2.2 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 future generations of people (89%), people in India (88%), plant and animal species (84%), people in their own community (81%), and themselves and their own family (81%).
The percentage of people in India who say global warming will harm future generations either “a great deal” or “a moderate amount” is 9 percentage points higher than it was in February 2025, as is the percentage who say that people in India (+9 percentage points) and themselves and their own family (+7 points), and people in their community (+6 points) will be harmed (refer to data tables, pp. 45-46).
2.3 About two-thirds of people in India think Indians are already being harmed by global warming.
About two-thirds of people in India think Indians are already being harmed by global warming (66%). Fewer think people in India will be harmed within 10 years (14%), 25 years (7%), 50 years (4%), or 100 years (1%), and only 2% think global warming will never harm people in India, while 5% say they don’t know (refer to data tables, p. 46).
The percentage of people in India who think Indians are already being harmed by global warming is 13 percentage points higher than when this question was last asked in 2023.
2.4 Most people in India think global warming will have dangerous impacts.
Most 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 (76%), extinctions of plant and animal species (69%), droughts and water shortages (69%), agricultural pests and diseases (67%), severe cyclones (66%), days with severe air pollution (66%), famines and food shortages (59%), and severe floods (52%).
The percentage of people who think that global warming will cause “many more” dangerous impacts is higher than in 2023 for all repeated questions (refer to data tables, pp. 47-49), including severe heat waves (+16 percentage points since 2023), droughts and water shortages (+13 points), extinctions of plant and animal species (+12 points), severe cyclones (+12 points), famines and food shortages (+9 points), days with severe air pollution (+8 points), agricultural pests and diseases (+7 points), and severe floods (+6 points).
2.5 A large majority of people in India say global warming is personally important to them.
More than nine in 10 people in India (94%) say global warming is either “extremely important” (44%), “very important” (34%), or “somewhat important” (17%) to them personally. Very few say it is either “not very important” (1%) or “not at all important” (3%), while 1% say they don’t know (refer to data tables, p. 49).
