Chart of the day: Australia’s growing climate complacency

Polling firm Essential Vision recently released an update of a long-running poll in which they have been asking respondents to gauge how much they think Australia is doing on climate action – and how much they think it should be doing.

It shows some genuinely worrying results.

Broadly, the number of people who think that Australia is doing too much on climate remains low, but is still at its highest level since the poll began in 2016, at 12% of respondents.

Around a third of respondents are satisfied that Australia is ‘doing enough’ on climate, and while the largest group remains those who think Australia is not doing enough, at 45%, it’s notably lower than previous years, particularly around the bushfire season of January-February 2020.

The consequences of this are relatively serious. Australia is definitely not doing enough on climate change – the government’s targets are far too weak, and current performance shows emissions rising due to the growth of fossil gas mining and the transport sector cancelling out any gains from renewable energy.

It’s likely Australia’s federal government will want to exploit this change in feeling, perhaps worsened by the COVID19 pandemic drawing significant attention elsewhere, and resulting in a clear drop in media coverage of climate change.