International Public Opinion on Climate Change

The report finds that low-cost, repeated behaviors like reducing food waste are significantly more common than high-cost, one-time installations like heat pumps or solar panels. While many who adopted these behaviors faced minimal difficulty, non-adopters cited lack of awareness and lack of interest for low-cost actions, and high cost and home ownership issues for high-cost technologies.

• Low-cost, repeated behaviors are more frequently adopted than high-cost, one-time behaviors. Reducing food waste was the most common action, with 66% of respondents overall having tried to do so in the prior month, while only 7% had owned or leased an electric vehicle.
• Reducing food waste is widely adopted, with majorities in 36 of the 37 surveyed countries and territories reporting they tried to do so in the previous month. France (79%), Croatia (78%), and Italy (77%) had the highest rates, while Israel (43%) had the lowest.
• Meat consumption reduction is less common, with majorities in only 3 of 37 countries reporting adoption. Italy (59%), Greece (57%), and France (55%) were the most likely to try to eat less meat, while Japan (23%) was the least likely.
• Carbon offset adoption is low, with only 16% of respondents having ever bought them. No surveyed country or territory had a majority of respondents who had purchased offsets.
• Heat pump adoption stands at 12% overall, with significant geographic variation ranging from 45% in New Zealand to 3% in Israel and the United Kingdom.
• Rooftop solar panel adoption is 9% overall, with the highest adoption in the Netherlands (34%) and the lowest in Canada and Chile (2%).
• For high-cost behaviors like heat pumps, solar panels, and electric vehicles, the most common barriers for non-adopters are high cost and lack of home ownership.
• For low-cost behaviors, non-adopters primarily cite a lack of awareness, lack of interest, or having never thought about the action as the main barriers.
• A significant portion of those who adopted high-cost technologies still reported difficulties, particularly regarding expense. For example, 36% of heat pump adopters in South Korea and 46% of solar panel adopters in Hong Kong cited cost as a difficulty.

APA

Yale Program on Climate Change Communication (2023). International Public Opinion on Climate Change. https://climatecommunication.yale.edu/app/uploads/2024/05/international-public-opinion-household-actions-2023b.pdf

Chicago

Yale Program on Climate Change Communication. International Public Opinion on Climate Change. 2023. https://climatecommunication.yale.edu/app/uploads/2024/05/international-public-opinion-household-actions-2023b.pdf.

Wikipedia

{{cite report |author=Yale Program on Climate Change Communication |title=International Public Opinion on Climate Change |date=2023 |url=https://climatecommunication.yale.edu/app/uploads/2024/05/international-public-opinion-household-actions-2023b.pdf |access-date=23 October 2026 |via=Climate Insights Directory}}

BibTeX

@techreport{yaleprogramonclimatechangecommunication2023international, author = {{Yale Program on Climate Change Communication}}, title = {{International Public Opinion on Climate Change}}, institution = {Yale Program on Climate Change Communication}, year = {2023}, url = {https://climatecommunication.yale.edu/app/uploads/2024/05/international-public-opinion-household-actions-2023b.pdf}, urldate = {2026-10-23}, note = {Indexed by Climate Insights Directory} }