Climate Action Barometer 2022 | Quebecers are thirsty for collective measures

How do Quebecers perceive climate change? How many say they are eco-anxious? Are many of them wanting to change their daily habits? Are there still climate skeptics? These are all questions that Université Laval’s most recent Climate Action Barometer attempts to answer. Focus on a survey with surprising results.

More concerned than ever

Nearly 9 out of 10 Quebecers (86%) “believe that there is an urgent need to act in Quebec against climate change”, a figure which shows that “the population is more and more worried”, estimates Valériane Champagne St- Arnaud, scientific coordinator of the Barometer of climate action at Laval University. Of note: 71% of respondents say they are very concerned about environmental issues in general, compared to 61% a year earlier. Surprisingly, people aged 55 and over are more likely (78%) to be concerned about the environment than those aged 18-34 and 35-54 (65%). There is also a larger proportion of Quebecers (62% compared to 52% in 2021) who say they are concerned about the image projected in terms of the impact of their daily choices on the environment or the climate.

Yes, but…

In 2022, 16% of Quebecers believe that “climate change is a natural phenomenon for which humans do not need to intervene”. A surprising increase of four percentage points compared to the results of 2021 (12%). According to M^me Champagne St-Arnaud, one of the hypotheses, “is that we are in a context of information fatigue”. This form of denial could in some way be a reaction to always receiving the same information about climate change, which is often very pessimistic, postulates the expert. In addition, more and more followers of conspiracy theories about the COVID-19 pandemic are now attacking the conclusions of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) on social networks. Interesting new data that will henceforth be evaluated by Laval University: those who believe that the measures necessary to act against climate change harm individual freedoms. More than one in five respondents (22%) answered yes to the question in 2022.

Various emotions

It is women and young people aged 18 to 34 who experience the most negative emotions in relation to the climate crisis. This is also one of the novelties in 2022: measuring the eco-anxiety of Quebecers. One in two people say they have had such feelings during the year, but only 13% moderately and 3% high. In general, 43% of the population believe that climate change represents a high or very high short-term threat to Quebec, compared to 39% a year earlier. However, there is a significant gap between women (50%) and men (35%) on this question. Note that this survey was conducted online among 2,000 people aged 18 and over living in Quebec. The results were weighted, among other things, according to region, age and gender to obtain a result representative of the population.

The ever-popular solo car

Two-thirds of respondents (65%) say they use their car for their solo trips, a figure that shows that “Quebecers are still very attached to their car,” says Valériane Champagne St-Arnaud. However, she specifies that not everyone has access to a public transport network that would allow them to change their transport habits. In 2022, 55% of respondents said they want to choose their home close to their place of work, a drop from 2021 (58%).

A collective responsibility

“People are starting to get tired of the idea that climate actions are mainly based on their individual efforts,” said Ms.^me Champagne St-Arnaud. In this regard, they crave greater collective action than ever before. In this regard, 8 people out of 10 believe that Quebec has the capacity to act effectively against climate change. On the other hand, only 34% of Quebecers believe that Quebec and all its players are acting effectively in this direction. Moreover, while 85% of respondents say they are taking action for the climate, only 41% believe that the majority of Quebecers are doing their part to act against climate change.

More collective measures

According to Valériane Champagne St-Arnaud, the most recent Climate Barometer somehow indicates that we will have to adopt greater collective measures in the face of global warming. “The way elected officials should see these results is that if we really want to achieve the objectives [de carboneutralité], it’s going to take more robust measures. To this end, note that 86% of respondents said they were in favor of improving active transportation infrastructures. One in two people (51%) would also agree to a “significant” increase in registration fees for gas-guzzling vehicles.