‘A diabolical challenge’: public opinion and climate change policy in Australia

Abstract

The need for co-ordinated international action to mitigate climate change makes it one of the most complex public policy problems of modern times. For the advanced democracies, public opinion is a key element in developing an appropriate policy response. Australian public opinion towards climate change and the public policies that have been proposed to deal with the problem, most notably the emissions trading scheme (ETS), are examined using national survey data collected in late 2008. The results show widespread public concern about climate change, and a majority of respondents support the introduction of an ETS. However, a significant minority of the public remains opposed. Most importantly, however, most people declare themselves willing to pay more for environmental protection.

Keywords:

• public opinion
• ANUpoll
• climate change
• environmental protection policy
• emissions trading scheme

Acknowledgements

The ANUpoll on the Environment is available from the Australian Social Science Data Archive (http://assda.anu.edu.au). The authors thank the two reviewers from this journal, and the editor, Christopher Rootes, for their very constructive and helpful suggestions.

Notes

1. The survey is the third ANUpoll, a national survey of 1000 respondents, stratified by state, conducted by telephone, with a response rate of 30%. Full details can be found at http://www.anu.edu.au/anupoll/.

2. The 2007 AES found, in response to a question ‘Based on what you know, do you think Australia should or should not participate in the Kyoto agreement to reduce global warming?’, that 67% favoured participation, 8% opposed participation, and 25% said it depends.

3. All of the states and territories had Labour administrations in 2007, thus facilitating such an agreement.

4. In the first stage, the EU chose a trading system that covered only limited sources, such as carbon dioxide which accounts for 45% of greenhouse gas emissions in Europe. The second stage (or trading period) of the ETS began in 2008 and includes a wider coverage of gases (Parker 2006).

5. For example, although the 2007 AES found that on industrial relations, just 4% responded with a don't know response, and on private schooling, just 3%, on private schooling, a further 24% said that they had no view either for or against.

6. CNN/Opinion Research Corporation Poll. June 4–5, 2008. N = 1,035 adults nationwide. The question was ‘One plan to reduce global warming would have the government set a limit on the amount of those emissions that companies could produce each year. Companies that exceed that limit would face fines or higher taxes, but they could avoid those penalties by paying money to other companies that produced fewer emissions than allowed. Would you favour or oppose this proposal?’ See http://www.pollingreport.com/enviro.htm.

7. The question was ‘Next, thinking about the issue of global warming, sometimes called the ‘greenhouse effect’, how well do you feel you understand this issue – would you say very well, fairly well, not very well, or not at all?’ See http://www.pollingreport.com/enviro.htm.

8. The two items are correlated (r = 0.34, p = 0.000).

9. This implies, of course, that other factors not accounted for the in the model account for the remaining 90% of the variance. We also replicated the analysis using logistical regression techniques, but since the results were substantially the same as those reported here, we opted for the more straightforward presentation in Table 5.

10. The mean inter-item correlation between the four items was 0.48, and the Cronbach's alpha for the scale, 0.79.

11. In answer to a question ‘Which of the following is the most serious threat to the future wellbeing of the world?’, 41% said global warning, 29% population growth, 18% terrorism, and 3% AIDs/HIV.

12. A further 33% thought that the measures were ‘about right’, with just 3% taking the view that ‘more than enough’ was being done. These figures are very similar to US opinion where a 2008 survey found that 61% believed that the government should be doing more to protect the environment. See http://www.pollingreport.com/enviro.htm.