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Expert Reaction
These comments have been collated by the Science Media Centre to provide a variety of expert perspectives on this issue. Feel free to use these quotes in your stories. Views expressed are the personal opinions of the experts named. They do not represent the views of the SMC or any other organisation unless specifically stated.
Dr John Kerr, Department of Public Health, University of Otago, comments:
"This study draws on data from a pretty chonky survey of almost 100,000 people around the world, collected through Facebook. It is a new analysis of data first reported in 2022.
"The focus in this new study is on the relationships between different climate-related beliefs, such as believing climate change is happening, believing it is caused by humans, concern about climate change, and support for government action, renewable energy, and reducing fossil fuels.
"Generally these beliefs tend to go together. For example, people who are worried about climate change are usually more likely to support government action. This is especially true in more developed, higher-resource countries, grouped under the label “global north” (which, confusingly, also includes Australia and New Zealand).
"Fewer studies have looked at how strongly these beliefs connect in other parts of the world. This study helps fill that gap, examining climate beliefs across 110 territories. One key finding was that in some countries the beliefs do not line up so neatly, and in some cases they even run counter to what you might expect. In particular, the authors note that support for reducing fossil fuels is not always linked to other climate beliefs, and this was slightly more common in economies that depend more on fossil fuel production, such as Kuwait.
"This matters for climate change because it suggests that increasing support for, say, government action in general may not always translate into stronger support for cutting fossil fuel use.
"The authors also report some findings specific to Aotearoa New Zealand. Like other developed “global north” countries, climate beliefs here were relatively closely linked. But we ranked just below the global average on a score that combined all the climate-related beliefs. The authors describe countries scoring below average as having a relatively “anti-climate” stance. That is only in comparison with other countries though. I think this label risks giving the impression that Kiwis are actively opposed to climate action, when in fact survey data (including from this study) shows most New Zealanders accept the reality of climate change and support efforts to reduce its impact."
