Despite political denial and media distortion, majorities in Australia and the United States accept climate change is real, human-caused and demands action.

Climate change may be nonsense, a giant conspiracy, a fraud and other things to people like Donald Trump and Tony Abbott – but it’s not to the American public – nor the Australian one.

Recently the Center for Climate Change Communication at George Mason University published a major report – Climate Change in the American Mind: Beliefs & Attitudes.

The report found that Americans who think global warming is happening outnumber those who think it is not by a ratio of more than 5 to 1 (72 per cent versus 13 per cent). However, 85 per cent of Americans either underestimate how many Americans are worried or don’t know enough to say.

This is hardly surprising giving the barrage of misinformation coming from the White House and fossil fuel lobbyists. They don’t get much help from the media either, as only 17 per cent of Americans say they hear about global warming in the media ‘at least once a week’. This is the lowest percentage since the question was first asked in 2015.

A majority are aware that global warming is mostly human-caused and 64 per cent are somewhat worried. Some 31 per cent think global warming is affecting the weather in the US – that includes 12 per cent who think weather is being affected a lot.

In Australia the Monash Climate Change Communication Research Hub has been undertaking a wide variety of research for some years.

The Monash research is not directly comparable to – and is older than – the George Mason research. But the results are staggering to say the least.

Its research has found that since 2011 Australians are increasingly alarmed, less disengaged, and less doubtful, but with little change in dismissive attitudes regarding climate change, according to an analysis based on a survey of public beliefs and attitudes.

In 2022 (the latest attitudinal research on the Monash website), 31 per cent of Australians said they were alarmed about climate change, increasing from 14 per cent in 2011; 27 per cent of Australians are concerned about climate change, decreasing from 31 per cent in 2011; 23 per cent of Australians are cautious about climate change, decreasing from 27 per cent in 2011; just 2 per cent of Australians are disengaged with climate change, down from 6 per cent in 2011; 9 per cent of Australians are doubtful about climate change, decreasing from 15 per cent in 2011; and, 9 per cent of Australians are dismissive about climate change, only 1 per cent higher than in 2011.

The research found that women were slightly more active on climate change than men. Overall, more women reported taking action on climate change than men. While similar proportions of men and women reported taking ‘a great deal’ of action, more men reported taking no action than women.

A more recent (2025) Ipsos study provides an updated view on Australians’ attitudes towards the global climate crisis and the transition to net zero emissions. It undertook the study in 32 countries.

More than half (56 per cent) of Australians agreed that if individuals don’t act now to combat climate change, we will be failing future generations.

Agreement with the statement has been steady over the last three years, following a sharp drop in 2022. Australia was lower, however, than the global country average which was 64 per cent across 32 countries. Concern was greatest in the Philippines (82 per cent), Indonesia (81 per cent) and Mexico (80 per cent).

More than half of Australians (56 per cent) also believe the nation should do more in the fight against climate change.  Again, this is in line with 2024, but down marginally on 2023 (60 per cent) and below the global country average of 62 per cent.

Like many countries around the world there is limited belief in Australia that the government has a clear plan in place for how it, businesses and the population are going to work together to tackle climate change.

Only 28 per cent of Australians surveyed agreed we have a clear plan, whereas 34 per cent disagreed, with the remainder uncertain. Australia again was worse than the global country average of 32 per cent.

Interestingly, our belief in the government’s commitment to tackling climate change has been somewhat volatile; it is higher than last year (24 per cent) after declining from 30 per cent in 2023 and 37 per cent in 2022, which was a sharp rise from 29 per cent in 2021.