Report · Jun 4, 2020
Politics & Global Warming, April 2020
By Anthony Leiserowitz, Edward Maibach, Seth Rosenthal, John Kotcher, Matthew Ballew, Parrish Bergquist, Abel Gustafson, Matthew Goldberg and Xinran Wang
Filed under: Beliefs & Attitudes, Behaviors & Actions and Policy & Politics
8. Who is Responsible for Action on Global Warming?
8.1. About seven in ten registered voters want corporations and industry to do more to address global warming. Most voters also want more action from citizens and government.
Across party lines, registered voters say corporations and industry should do more to address global warming (72% of all registered voters; including 89% of Democrats, 76% of Independents, and 55% of Republicans).
Half or more of Democrats, Independents, and liberal/moderate Republicans, think citizens, the U.S. Congress, the Republican Party, President Trump, their own member of Congress, the Democratic Party, their local government officials, and their governor should do more to address global warming (see Data Tables, pp. 76–79). Majorities of Democrats (71%) and Independents (58%) think they themselves should do more, while a minority of Republicans (29%) think so.
About half of liberal/moderate Republicans (54%) think their party (the Republican Party) should do more to address global warming, while only one in four conservative Republicans (24%) think so. Large majorities of both liberal Democrats (86%) and moderate/conservative Democrats (73%) think their party (the Democratic Party) should do more. Majorities of Independents think the Republican Party (67%) and the Democratic Party (61%) should do more.
8.2. Most Democrats think global warming should be a “high” or “very high” priority for the president and Congress. About half of Independents also think so.
A large majority of Democrats (83%) think global warming should be a high or very high priority for the president and Congress. About half of Independents (56%) also think global warming should be a high priority, but relatively few Republicans (22%) think so.
Over the past five years (since March 2015), the percentage of Democrats who think global warming should be a high priority for the president and Congress has increased by 16 percentage points (see Data Tables, p. 42).
8.3. Most registered voters think developing sources of clean energy should be a “high” or “very high” priority for the president and Congress.
Majorities of Democrats (92%) and Independents (71%), and more than four in ten Republicans (47%), think developing sources of clean energy should be a high or very high priority for the president and Congress.
Democrats think both global warming (83%; see previous section) and developing sources of clean energy (92%) should be high priorities for the president and Congress. In contrast, Independents (71% vs. 56%), and Republicans (47% vs. 22%) are more likely to think clean energy should be a priority than to think global warming should be a priority.
