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The People’s Climate Vote 2024 report highlights a global consensus on climate action

The largest global survey on climate change reveals an astonishing consensus – people want stronger action from their leaders.

Many reports explore generational views on climate change and sustainability, but the second edition of the People’s Climate Vote 2024, published by the UNDP and Oxford University, stands out for its quality and scope.

The report, aiming to understand how people experience daily climate impacts and their expectations from world leaders, is based on an extensive survey that includes marginalized groups from the poorest parts of the world. More than 73,000 people, speaking 87 different languages across 77 countries, were surveyed with 15 questions about climate change, representing 87% of the global population.

Climate change is often framed as a polarizing topic. However, the survey’s extensive coverage reveals a surprising level of consensus: a majority of people globally, and in 80% of the countries surveyed, are becoming more worried about climate change. Over half (53%) of people globally said they were more worried about climate change than they were last year.

There was a mounting concern about climate change in Least Developed Countries (LDCs), where six in ten (59%) people said they were more worried about climate change than they were last year. This is compared to half (50%) of people in the richest 20 ountries. 

Extreme weather is becoming worse for most. Globally, nearly half (43%) of people said extreme weather events were worse than usual, compared with the previous year. 

Big life decisions are impacted by climate change as extreme weather events continue to increase around the world. For over two-thirds of the world’s population (69%), these experiences have impacted people’s big decisions, such as where to live or work and what to buy. This figure was notably higher in LDCs (74%) and Small Island Developing States (SIDS; 80%) where climate impacts on big decisions tended to be greater.

Far from being a divisive issue among people, majorities across the globe want their countries to strengthen climate commitments, and are equally unconvinced by big businesses’ real climate efforts. Globally, four in five people (80%) called for their country to enhance its commitments to address climate change. Eight in ten (80%) of people globally called on schools in their country to teach more about climate change.

There is an interesting gender component: women across the globe are more likely than men to be increasingly worried about climate change and are more in favor of direct actions to combat climate deterioration by at least 15%. A majority of all age groups reported that they have become increasingly worried about climate change, including older generations. 

You can see the country’s results here.

Or download the full report here.

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Mina Baginova

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Kim Pillen

Consultant

Before Kim Pillen started as a trend consultant at TrendsActive, she worked for four years as a creative strategist at Dept. For brands such as Philips, bol.com, Beiersdorf, JBL, and the Consumers’ Association, she built (online) campaign, brand, and social media strategies. After four years, she decided that she wanted to better understand people and society in order to advise brands more effectively. That’s how she ended up at TrendsActive. Here, she can do what she loves most: digging into people’s needs and then working with brands to see how and where they can be relevant and meaningful.

Douwe Knijff

Researcher

Douwe is fascinated by how people work. With a background in Interdisciplinary Social Sciences (Bachelor) and Psychology (Master) and an analytical mind he tries figure out how societal shifts manifest themselves through social culture and human behaviour.

Aljan De Boer

Keynote speaker

Aljan has been widely recognized as an inspiring professional speaker on the critical trends that will shape society in the decades to come. He works as the Head of Inspiration at TrendsActive, a trend consultancy from the Netherlands using social science to human-proof business decision for brands like

  • Disney
  • Vodafone
  • Hugo Boss
  • ASR
  • Rabobank

Next to his role at TrendsActive he is the Community Director at the Institute for Real Growth where he inspires and connects a global community of +400 CMOs.  

He has been on the board of the Dutch Platform of Innovative Marketing for almost a decade. Regular speaker and moderator for the Dutch Marketing Awards and 3 times winner of the best of MIE. 

Kees Elands

Founder & Strategist

Kees his purpose is to help ambitious leaders and brands to human-proof their business. In 2003 he founded TrendsActive, a trend consultancy enabling brands to become more human centric.

Kees consults global brands like

  • Disney
  • The Coca-Cola Company
  • Asics
  • Discovery Channel
  • Swiss Life
  • Vodafone

and many more.

Next to being the founder of TrendsActive, he is also initiator of the first academic trend master for executives at the University of Utrecht and is initiator of various trend studies and white papers on subjects like trust, meaning, visual culture & generations.

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Kees Elands

Founder & Strategist

Kees Elands

Founder & Strategist