New Global Study Finds Diminishing Support for Fighting Climate Change

Posted by Enrique on 11.30.2008

Less is more

On Monday, a major international conference will convene in Poland with the aim of developing a new treaty on climate change to replace the Kyoto Protocol, which expires in three years. With that in mind, the results of a new poll on public attitudes toward global warming were published earlier this week. The poll included over 12,000 respondents in 11 different countries, and indicated that more and more people just aren't taking climate change very seriously:

Less than half of those surveyed, or 47 per cent, said they were prepared to make personal lifestyle changes to reduce carbon emissions, down from 58 per cent last year.

Only 37 per cent said they were willing to spend "extra time" on the effort, an eight-point drop.

And only one in five respondents - or 20 per cent - said they'd spend extra money to reduce climate change. That's down from 28 per cent a year ago...

"There's consumer reluctance that's creeping in, and we've seen that some are being stunned into inaction by the enormity of the task," said Earthwatch executive vice-president Nigel Winser.

With all due respect to Mr. Winser, I'm not sure the enormity of the task is stunning anyone into inaction - rather, many people are skeptical that climate change is a critical issue worthy of personal sacrifice. Unless you're an ideological environmentalist, the benefits of the carbon reductions called for in Kyoto are difficult to intuit. For example, Poland is a major coal producer, so there would be serious economic consequences for them to drastically cut carbon emissions. For the average Polish citizen, it must not seem sensible to impair economic productivity in the name of reducing the global temperature by a few degrees many decades from now.

Even if you believe that global warming is man-made and that carbon emissions should be reduced, you don't necessarily have the luxury of accepting intrusive environmental regulations that will hamstring your economy. The carbon cuts envisioned by Kyoto are not conducive to economic prosperity. Last week, the United Nations reported that global carbon emissions were reduced by almost 900 million metric tons between 1990 and 2006. While that seems like positive news at first blush, these carbon cuts were primarily the result of the dissolution of the Soviet Union, and the ensuing economic stagnation in Eastern Europe. Now that Eastern European economies are recovering, carbon emissions are back on the rise, and countries like Poland want special exemptions from any climate change treaty.

That's the fundamental problem with the Kyoto framework - its cost far exceeds its perceived benefit. Rather than approaching climate change as an enormous task only achievable through drastic carbon cuts (and a heavy dose of fearmongering), it might be more sensible to set modest goals. That's the recommendation of Bjørn Lomborg in his latest book, Cool It: The Skeptical Environmentalist's Guide to Global Warming. Lomborg argues a carbon tax (or cap-and-trade scheme) costing no more than $2 per metric ton would help reduce emissions without imposing severe economic restrictions.

If the climate change movement wants to get public opinion back in their favor, they would be well-advised to reconsider their strategy of alarmism and unreasonable demands, and focus instead on setting attainable goals. In the case of global warming, less is more - ask for less, and you might be more likely to get it.