World Survey: 43% of People Believe Global Warming is of More Concern than the World Financial Crisis

A study commissioned by the bank HSBC which set out to gauge public opinion about climate change in nine of the world’s major markets reveals that people in developing countries are more concerned about the potential impacts of climate change, and more willing to do something about it.

The study, which questioned a thousand people in each of the nine countries (UK, France, Germany, USA, Mexico, India, Brazil, China and Hong Kong) reveals much about how people perceive the threat of climate change, and the role of government and the individual in addressing the problem.

“Concern about climate
change is high, especially in
developing economies, and
so is people’s individual
commitment to address it.” - HSBC Climate Confidence Index

The difference in opinion can be stark. For example, in the United States of America where per capita CO2 output is very high, only 23% of people questioned believed they were making a significant effort to help reduce the effects of climate change. Contrast this with 43% in Mexico which has less than 1/4 of the CO2 output per capita.

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What also seems to jump off the page is that the public in richer nations such as France, UK and USA are less concerned in general, less confident in their politicians, less committed personally to addressing the problem and also less optimistic that we will be able to stop climate change. Basically they appear to be more apathetic.

The report also seems to indicate that people believe governments should be playing a major role, but only about 1/4 thought that governments were doing enough.

It seems that while governments are quick to act on things that immediately affect our pockets such as the world economic crisis, they are at the same time incredibly slow to even acknowledge major concerns that could be incredibly expensive in the long term.

Maybe people in the developing world are more concerned with the big issues such as climate change and less worried about whether they will be able to get credit to blow on a Christmas binge?

Image credit: Simon Davison at Flickr under a Creative Commons license

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