The 30th United Nations Climate Change Conference of the Parties (COP30) in Belém, Brazil, begins on November 10, 2025. 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. Marking 10 years since the Paris Agreement — when nearly every country pledged to limit global warming to well below 2ºC compared to pre-industrial levels — this year’s conference comes at a pivotal moment, amid growing evidence of the need for stronger and faster global climate action.

As world leaders prepare for these critical negotiations, understanding public attitudes toward climate change is more important than ever. In the days before COP30, we’re sharing some key insights from our climate opinion research in the U.S. and around the world.

Support for the Paris Agreement

In May 2025, with our partners at George Mason University, we found that 79% of U.S. registered voters support the United States’ participation in the Paris Climate Agreement, and 65% opposed President Trump’s decision to withdraw from the Agreement. Support has remained very high (more than 90%) among liberal and moderate/conservative Democrats since we first asked this question in October 2017. Support has varied among Republicans over time, but support for U.S. participation has increased since 2021 among both liberal/moderate Republicans and conservative Republicans.

In our international research, we find strong support for participation in the Paris Agreement. For example, 73% of Indians favor India’s participation in the Agreement. Likewise, in a new nationally representative survey in Indonesia — which is soon to be published — 85% of Indonesians favor Indonesia’s participation in the Paris Agreement. Finally, in a survey of 31 countries and territories worldwide conducted in partnership with Data for Good at Meta, we found that support for participation in the Paris Agreement ranged from 96% in Costa Rica to 74% in the United States.

Other Top Insights

• Many people in the Global South are still not aware of climate change. Our recent survey in India finds that 27% of Indians have not heard of global warming, and in our upcoming report from Indonesia, we find 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 African and South Asian nations also know little to nothing about climate change, and that climate belief systems in these areas are looser and less dense, indicating less firmly-held opinions.

• 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 many lower-income and lower-emissions countries 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.

• 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 across 23 countries conducted in partnership with Potential Energy found that an “urgency and generational” message (i.e., that climate change and extreme weather are harming us now and will harm our children in the future) had the largest positive effect of all messages tested on support for climate action. Additionally, we found that all tested messages had positive effects, with no messages producing polarizing or backfire effects.

• Majorities in many countries are Alarmed about climate change, especially in Latin America. Our prior research has identified six distinct audiences within the U.S. public — the Alarmed, Concerned, Cautious, Disengaged, Doubtful, and Dismissive — based on their beliefs and attitudes about climate change. Applying this analysis to our international survey of more than 100 countries and territories worldwide, we find that half or more respondents in thirty-one areas are Alarmed, and the areas with the largest percentage of Alarmed are Puerto Rico (70%), El Salvador (67%), Costa Rica (65%), Chile (64%), and Panama (64%). Additionally, majorities are Alarmed in five of the top 15 emitters — Mexico (62%), India (58%), Brazil (57%), Türkiye (53%), and South Korea (52%).

• The 2024 U.S. election was not a referendum on climate change — Americans’ understanding that global warming is happening and a serious problem, and their support for climate action, did not change before, during, or after the election. As of May 2025, 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 (69% versus 15%), and 65% 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

For more details about the resources below, YPCCC’s own Cynthia Norrie provides a detailed overview on YouTube.

• 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 recently 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, Ireland, the United Kingdom, Brazil, and the United States, with a new report on Indonesia coming later this month.

• 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.
  • Chinese Public Awareness, Support, and Confidence in China’s Carbon Neutrality Goal: A 2022 survey of 4,162 people across China shows high awareness, support, and confidence in achieving China’s carbon neutrality goal. Responses differ somewhat by gender, age, location, education, income, occupation, and health, but support is high across all groups.

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.

Stories from Yale Climate Connections

• Two international courts just issued major climate rulings. Here’s what that means.
• The climate needs a chorus: Teenagers from around the world speak up 
• Interview: Ani Dasgupta talked to 100 climate experts. He came away optimistic.  
• China pulls ahead in the renewable race
• The planet had 58 billion-dollar weather disasters in 2024, the second-highest on record
• Climate change is worsening diabetes worldwide
• Climate change is accelerating, scientists find in ‘grim’ report 
• En Español: Lo qué significa el abandono del Acuerdo de París (What the withdrawal from the Paris Agreement means)

Data Tables for Accessibility