The Essential Report Archive Read the latest report

Climate change acceptance

22 Jun 2021

Q. Do you believe that there is fairly conclusive evidence that climate change is happening and caused by human activity or do you believe that the evidence is still not in and we may just be witnessing a normal fluctuation in the earth’s climate which happens from time to time?

Jun’21 Jan’21 Jan’20 Nov’19 Mar’19 Oct’18 Sep’17 Aug’16
Climate change is happening and is caused by human activity 56% 58% 56% 61% 62% 63% 64% 57%
We are just witnessing a normal fluctuation in the earth’s climate 27% 32% 32% 28% 27% 25% 24% 26%
Don’t know 16% 10% 13% 11% 12% 13% 12% 17%
Base (n) 1,087 1,084 1,081 1,083 1,089 1,027 1,011 1,022
  • Over half (56%) of Australians now believe climate change is happening and is caused by human activity, similar to recent results earlier in 2021 (58%) and 2020 (56%)
  • The proportion of those who are undecided on the cause of climate change has increased from earlier in the year to 16% (from 10% in January). Less than a third (27%) believe we are just witnessing a normal fluctuation in the earth’s climate.
  Total Gender Age Group Federal Voting Intention
  Male Female 18-34 35-54 55+ Labor TOTAL: Coalition Greens TOTAL: Other
Climate change is happening and is caused by human activity 56% 54% 58% 61% 58% 51% 70% 44% 81% 50%
We are just witnessing a normal fluctuation in the earth’s climate 27% 33% 22% 19% 27% 35% 19% 40% 14% 36%
Don’t know 16% 12% 20% 20% 16% 14% 10% 17% 6% 14%
Base (n) 1,087 527 560 328 374 385 378 407 98 102
  •  Acceptance that climate change is happening and is caused by human activity is highest among Greens voters (81%) and Labor voters (70%).
  • Those who think changes are a normal fluctuation in the earth’s climate is highest among Coalition voters (40%), those over 55 (35%) and men (33%).
Error: