Climate change acceptance

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%).