The 31st United Nations Climate Change Conference of the Parties (COP31) in Antalya, Turkey, begins on November 9, 2026. The two-week conference will convene most of the world’s nations to accelerate action toward the goals of the Paris Agreement and the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change. This negotiation follows a summer of record-breaking climate disasters – including extreme heat, landslides, and wildfires – and in the midst of a major El Niño that is expected to bring even more disasters worldwide. It also follows the release of a major United Nations report finding that global warming is expected to surpass 1.5ºC compared to pre-industrial levels, and that urgent action is needed to limit further warming. 

As world leaders prepare for these critical negotiations, understanding public attitudes toward climate change is more important than ever. In the days before COP31, we’re sharing some key insights from our climate opinion research in the U.S. and around the world. 

Support for Net Zero Goals 

In our nationally representative survey research in India and Indonesia, we find strong support for each country’s Net Zero goals. Specifically, we find that 86% of Indians support their government’s commitment to reducing India’s carbon pollution to nearly zero by 2070, and 83% of Indonesians support their government’s commitment to a similar goal by 2060. Moreover, although the United States has not made any formal commitments to a Net Zero strategy, we find that 65% of Americans support transitioning the U.S. economy from fossil fuels to 100% clean energy by 2050.

We also find strong support for participation in the Paris Agreement. In December 2025, we found that 77% of U.S. registered voters supported the United States’ participation in the Paris Climate Agreement, and 64% opposed President Trump’s decision to withdraw from the Agreement. Likewise, 73% of Indians and 85% of Indonesians favor their country’s participation in the Agreement. 

Other Top Insights

• Many people in the Global South are still not aware of climate change. Our recent survey in India finds that 36% of Indians have not heard of global warming, and our similar survey in Indonesia finds that 21% of Indonesians have not heard of climate change. Nonetheless, in both countries, once given a one-sentence description, large majorities say that it is happening. These results are consistent with our research finding that many people in the Global South also know little to nothing about climate change, yet say it is happening once given a short description.

• However, people worldwide say climate change is affecting hazards like heat waves, floods, and storms and say climate change is making them worse. For example, our research in the United States, India, and across the Global South finds that millions of people say climate change is making heat waves worse and are very worried about these extreme events. Extreme weather events, which focus the attention of the public, policymakers, and the media, are “teachable moments” that can raise public awareness and concern about climate change.

• The people who face the most risk from climate impacts are often unprepared. For example, our analysis of 68 middle- and low-income countries and territories found that higher levels of economic, governmental, and social readiness for extreme weather do not mean that people in those countries feel more prepared. Our research in the United States has also found significant gaps between heat exposure and heat worry in many parts of the U.S., and that people in climate change’s frontline communities are not more worried about global warming overall. 

• Messages that emphasize the harms of climate change from extreme weather, and the threat to our children’s future, are effective across many countries and audiences. Although different countries experience global warming in different ways, a message experiment in 23 countries conducted in partnership with the Potential Energy Coalition found that messages emphasizing that climate change and extreme weather are harming us now and will harm our children in the future had the largest positive effect of the messages tested on support for climate action. A separate study in the U.S., U.K., and India found that short messages quantifying the effect of climate change on specific extreme weather events increased people’s understanding that climate change is making extreme weather more likely. Across both studies, we found that all tested messages had positive effects, with no messages producing polarizing or backfire effects.

• Americans still understand that global warming is happening and a serious problem. As of April 2026, the number of Americans who think global warming is happening outnumber those who think it is not by a ratio of more than 4 to 1 (68% versus 16%), and 66% are worried about it. Majorities of registered voters support a range of policies to reduce carbon pollution and promote clean energy. And majorities of registered voters want corporations and industry, government, and citizens to do more to address global warming.

Additional Resources from Our Research

• Mapping and factsheet tools: Our Yale Climate Opinion Maps allow users to explore geographic variation in public opinion within countries. In addition to our maps in the United States, we have released Climate Opinion Maps for the United Kingdom, Ireland, and India. Additionally, our interactive factsheet tools allow users to generate customized summaries of results by location in the United States and India, and our global factsheet tool allows users to explore key results from more than 100 individual countries and territories worldwide.

• Reports from our nationally representative surveys: See full results from our latest nationally representative surveys in India, Indonesia, the United Kingdom, and the United States, plus a new report on Ireland in the coming months. 

• Recent peer-reviewed publications:
  • Understanding the policy features that affect Indians’ support for India’s 2070 net-zero goal: An experiment found that Indians more strongly support India’s 2070 net-zero goal when it includes a job guarantee program for Indians who lose their job in a coal-fired power plant, policies to mitigate pollution, investment or redistribution of funds collected via coal taxes, and adaptation policies to protect the most vulnerable Indians and critical infrastructure.
  • Gender, Development, and Recognition of Anthropogenic Climate Change: Women in less developed countries are less likely than men to recognize climate change as human-caused, with educational disparities and limited access to information driving this gender gap in climate science understanding. However, as countries advance economically and democratically, these gender differences narrow significantly.
  • The impacts of climate activism: A review and synthesis of 50 research articles finds strong evidence that climate activism influences public opinion and media coverage worldwide, although the specific relationship depends on the kind of actions taken and the way the media covers the events. 

YPCCC Partnership Resources

• The YPCCC Partnerships Program provides strategic communication consulting and other resources to help climate communicators around the world. To learn more, visit our partnerships hub. 

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