By the Green Economy Coalition
The Green Economy Coalition is a global network driving the transition to an inclusive, sustainable economy. It works with partners to amplify citizens’ voices, hold governments accountable, and promote real economic change. The coalition envisions an economy that prioritizes people, the planet, and resilience.
As 2024 comes to a close, we at the Green Economy Coalition have been reflecting on a couple of important trends that have shaping global politics and economics over the past 12 months: political divisions, the challenges of staying in power, growing economic and social instability, and increasing voter polarisation.
But this isn’t the whole story. In fact, there’s another narrative emerging, thanks to our just-launched global survey on citizen attitudes – one which paints a much more nuanced and hopeful picture for a green and fair transition:
People value the environment more than simple economic develpment
Our research – conducted in partnership with the polling firm Savanta, and gathering more than 10,000 responses across ten countries – found that, globally, eight in ten people believe that their governments should make cleaner, renewable energy a top priority, even if it requires significant new public funding.
This finding is at odds with some current political narratives, which tend to portray voters as losing faith in green initiatives under the pressure of rising costs and economic constraints. The survey also found that seven in ten people would prioritise environmental protection, even at the cost of some economic – development.
The demand for greener, fairer economies is clear – and if you’d like to dig into the details, we’ve made the full findings, data tables and methodologies for each of the ten countries available free and open-source on the GEC website.
The so called ‘Global South’ is leading environmental action and protection
Our survey also shows that demand for environmental action is considerably stronger in the so called ‘Global South’ countries than the wealthier ones. Leaders in these emerging economies are now balancing environmental stewardship and economic development, showing the strongest levels of commitment to this issue.
Demand for environmental protection is also strongest in emerging economies compared with richer nations, with public support highest in Turkey (91%), Nigeria (89%) and South Africa (88%). And a majority of respondents (77%) are either “very” or “extremely” concerned about the impact of current environmental policies on future generations – again, this concern is significantly higher in less-developed countries like Nigeria (88%) compared with richer nations such as Australia (50%).
Furthermore, a ranking of expressed preferences between the 10 countries surveyed showed that – contrary to popular belief, the citizens of Global South countries like China, Nigeria and Indonesia are in fact far more willing to accept higher costs in return for moving the needle in environmental action. They recognise that green and fair economies are not to be taken for granted! In fact, the richest economy of those surveyed – Australia – was consistently the lowest performing respondent group when asked if they would be willing to give up some economic development in favour of environmental action.
These findings reveal important implications for the way forward in the renewable energy transition
We cannot accept “delayism”, the false idea that green and fair action is too expensive to do right now – because “later” is too late. In truth we cannot afford not to transition. However, we need to connect to the underlying needs that make this false argument compelling to many voters.
A fair and green transition can address the cost-of-living crisis at its roots. Investments in cleaner renewable energy, home insulation and new heating technologies can lower household bills and protect people from the “heating vs eating” dilemma. We can re-engineer our economy to invest in renewables, make our countries more energy secure, and less exposed to the whims of fossil fuel magnates – all of these are messages that should appeal to lots of voters.
We need more than mere technical solutions to move towards a fair, green, decarbonised society. For a just transformation of our economy, politicians, policy makers and climate campaigners need to start taking into consideration those who will bear its greatest costs.
The realities of those impacted by the transition need to be absorbed and engaged with by climate activists and policymakers. We need to be building on existing social demands for better citizen outcomes, by developing new ways to support people to engage and act in their communities, and investing the time, skills and space to connect people with others to build broad based support for transformative action. Political resistance needs to be overcome and that requires the building of deep power within and between communities. This survey points to some of the ways we can start to do just that – and you can find out more on our website.