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Climate Change
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?
Nov’19 | Mar’19 | Oct’18 | Sep’17 | Aug’16 | |
Climate change is happening and is caused by human activity | 61% | 62% | 63% | 64% | 57% |
We are just witnessing a normal fluctuation in the earth’s climate | 28% | 27% | 25% | 24% | 26% |
Don’t know | 11% | 12% | 13% | 12% | 17% |
Base (n) | 1,083 | 1,089 | 1,027 | 1,011 | 1,022 |
Total | Gender | Age | Voting Intention | |||||||
Male | Female | 18-34 | 35-54 | 55+ | Labor | Coalition | Greens | NET: Other | ||
Climate change is happening and is caused by human activity | 61% | 59% | 63% | 74% | 61% | 50% | 74% | 47% | 89% | 44% |
We are just witnessing a normal fluctuation in the earth’s climate | 28% | 32% | 25% | 18% | 25% | 41% | 16% | 43% | 1% | 48% |
Don’t know | 11% | 9% | 12% | 8% | 15% | 9% | 10% | 10% | 10% | 7% |
Base (n) | 1,083 | 527 | 556 | 329 | 369 | 385 | 342 | 373 | 93 | 162 |
61% believe that climate change is happening and is caused by human activity. This is consistent with previous results in Mar’19 (62%) and Oct’18 (63%).
- 28% believe that we may just be witnessing a normal fluctuation in the earth’s climate, no change from earlier in the year (27% in March).
- By age groups, those aged 18-34 were most likely to believe in man-made climate change (74%) and those over 55+ least so (50%).
- Less than half of Coalition votes (47%) believe that climate change is happening and is caused by human activity.

COVID-19 RESEARCH
Read Essential's ongoing research on the public response to Covid-19.
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Two Party Preferred:
Labor
45%
Coalition
48%
In this week's report:
- Performance of Scott Morrison
- Performance of Anthony Albanese
- Preferred Prime Minister
- Top Federal Government priorities for 2021
- Uptake of a Covid-19 vaccine
- Perceptions of change in the standard of living for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples
- Changing views towards Australia Day
- Support towards a separate national day
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