A survey of the US public shows an overall majority of Americans (54%) consider climate change a critical threat.
Key Findings
While the Democratic presidential candidates argue about how aggressive the Democratic nominee’s climate policies should be, there is no doubt that climate change will be an important agenda item for the Democratic primaries. A new Chicago Council Survey of the US public shows that Democrats name climate change as the most critical foreign policy threat facing the country, also for the first time. And a growing majority of Democrats say that immediate action is needed, even if the costs are significant. While the partisan difference in threat perceptions of climate change is wider than ever, Republicans have also grown more convinced that climate change is a problem that needs to be addressed.
