Report · Oct 20, 2021
Politics & Global Warming, September 2021
By Anthony Leiserowitz, Edward Maibach, Seth Rosenthal, John Kotcher, Jennifer Carman, Liz Neyens, Matthew Goldberg, Karine Lacroix and Jennifer Marlon
Filed under: Policy & Politics and Behaviors & Actions
1. Global Warming and Clean Energy as Government Priorities
1.1. Most Democrats think global warming should be a “high” or “very high” priority for the president and Congress.
As we reported previously, 60% of registered voters think global warming should be a high or very high priority for the president and Congress. This includes large majorities of liberal Democrats (94%) and moderate/conservative Democrats (80%), 53% of Independents (see data tables), and 45% of liberal/moderate Republicans. Relatively few conservative Republicans (17%) think so.
Over the past five years (since November 2016), the percentage of liberal Democrats who think global warming should be a high or very high priority for the president and Congress has increased by 14 percentage points, and the percentage of moderate/conservative Democrats who think so has increased by 11 percentage points.
1.2. Most registered voters think developing sources of clean energy should be a “high” or “very high” priority for the president and Congress.
Sixty-nine percent of registered voters think developing sources of clean energy should be a high or very high priority for the president and Congress (see data tables). This includes nearly all liberal Democrats (98%), a large majority of moderate/conservative Democrats (84%), and most Independents (64%, see data tables), a majority of liberal/moderate Republicans (56%), and one in three conservative Republicans (33%).
