In 2015, for the first time in Chicago Council Survey history, a majority of Democrats say that climate change requires immediate action and are three times more likely than Republicans to say climate change is a critical threat.
Key Findings
- Roughly four in ten Americans (37%, up eight percentage points from 2010) say that climate change is a serious and pressing problem, and that we should begin taking steps now even if this involves significant costs.
- For the first time, a majority of Democrats (56%) say that climate change requires immediate action, and Democrats are three times more likely than Republicans to say that climate change is a critical threat.
- Majorities across the political spectrum supported a “new international treaty to address climate change by reducing greenhouse gas emissions.”
Methodology
The analysis in this report is based on data from the 2015 Chicago Council Survey of the American public on foreign policy. The 2015 Chicago Council Survey was conducted by GfK Custom Research using the KnowledgePanel, a nationwide online research panel recruited through an address-based sampling frame. The survey was fielded between May 25 to June 17, 2015 among a national sample of 2,034 adults, 18 years of age or older, living in all 50 US states and the District of Columbia.
The margin of error ranges from ± 2.2 to ± 3.1 percentage points depending on the specific question, with higher margins of error for partisan subgroups.
