AFP, Paris :
The widest global effort yet to gauge citizens’ views on climate change showed 79 percent to be “very concerned” about its effects, but less than half support a carbon tax to curb emissions, organisers said Sunday.
Results of the day-long consultation held in 75 countries on Saturday were posted on the website of the initiative dubbed World Wide Views on Climate and Energy.
Next week, they will be put to climate negotiators meeting in Bonn, Germany ahead of a year-end United Nations conference in Paris, where nations have undertaken to sign a new world pact to curb global warming.
Responses to a multiple-choice questionnaire showed that 71 percent of the 10,000-odd participants believe the UN negotiations process has not done enough to tackle climate change. Nineteen percent of people said they were “moderately concerned” about the effects of climate change, and fewer than two percent were not at all concerned.
A large 64 percent believes the Paris agreement should “do whatever it takes” to limit global warming to two degrees Celsius (3.6 degrees Fahrenheit) over pre-Industrial Revolution levels — the UN goal. When it comes to practical measures to halt planet-warming carbon emissions, however, the responses are more nuanced.
Only 16 percent support the introduction of a tax on carbon for all countries, 42 percent for all countries but with rising costs for those not reducing emissions, and 30 percent a tax linked to a country’s level of development.
The widest global effort yet to gauge citizens’ views on climate change showed 79 percent to be “very concerned” about its effects, but less than half support a carbon tax to curb emissions, organisers said Sunday.
Results of the day-long consultation held in 75 countries on Saturday were posted on the website of the initiative dubbed World Wide Views on Climate and Energy.
Next week, they will be put to climate negotiators meeting in Bonn, Germany ahead of a year-end United Nations conference in Paris, where nations have undertaken to sign a new world pact to curb global warming.
Responses to a multiple-choice questionnaire showed that 71 percent of the 10,000-odd participants believe the UN negotiations process has not done enough to tackle climate change. Nineteen percent of people said they were “moderately concerned” about the effects of climate change, and fewer than two percent were not at all concerned.
A large 64 percent believes the Paris agreement should “do whatever it takes” to limit global warming to two degrees Celsius (3.6 degrees Fahrenheit) over pre-Industrial Revolution levels — the UN goal. When it comes to practical measures to halt planet-warming carbon emissions, however, the responses are more nuanced.
Only 16 percent support the introduction of a tax on carbon for all countries, 42 percent for all countries but with rising costs for those not reducing emissions, and 30 percent a tax linked to a country’s level of development.
