Australians are among the most sceptical around the world that climate disruption is being caused by humans and that the costs of tackling it will be less than that of its impacts, according to polling across 26 countries.
Just 60% of Australians accept that climate disruption is human-caused.
Only 52% of Australians – the lowest percentage of any country – thought “the costs caused by the damage linked to climate disruption and pollution are going to be greater than the investments needed for the ecological transition of our societies”.
On average, 75% of people globally agree with the World Health Organization that climate change is the greatest health threat facing humanity, compared with only 63% of Australians.
The polling found 78% of Australians agreed climate disruption was happening, compared with 89% globally. Only residents of Ivory Coast had lower levels of acceptance than Australians, according to the polling.
About 20% of Australians did not trust what scientists told them.