This global study asked more than 11,000 people in 28 countries about their experience with climate change. Around 70% of respondents represent the global population with the remaining 30% representing the corporate world.
The research found that nearly 70% of people trust climate scientists, up from 57% in 2019, when this question was first asked. In Eastern Europe and Central Asia, the jump was particularly dramatic, with trust nearly doubling, from 38% in 2019 to 65% in 2021. North Americans expressed the largest share of doubters with 16% saying they had "a little" or no trust in climate science, a number that dropped from 18% in 2020.
While 50% of people were optimistic about reducing carbon emissions within the next 20 years, sentiment from market to market was more mixed - 76% in South Asia feel optimistic about progress, while around a third of the population in Western Europe, Eastern Europe and North America share a more neutral pessimism.
Importantly, 74% of respondents agree climate change is caused by humans, a number that rose from 67% in 2020. This question has been settled within climate science for some time, but the question remains a topic of political circles.