About 82% of Indians are either alarmed or concerned about global warming and are in support of bringing in energy policies to reduce its effects, reveals a new study.
The study report, Global Warming's Four Indias, 2022: An Audience Segmentation Analysis, prepared by the Yale Programme on Climate Change Communication and CVoter International, identified four types of audiences within the Indian public who were classified as "the alarmed," consisting of 54%, "the concerned," 20%, "the cautious," 11%, and "the disengaged," consisting of just 7%.
The study has found that the majority of the people belonging to three segments backed the formulation of policies to fight climate change and opined that the Indian government should be doing more to address global warming.
They also backed the development of a national programme to teach Indians about global warming, train people on renewable energy jobs, encourage local communities to build check dams to ensure local water supplies, and express the opinion that India should reduce its greenhouse gas emissions immediately before other countries.
"The message from the report to the Indian public is clear. Indians of all kinds are concerned about climate change, support climate policies, and want leadership from their governments," said Dr. Anjal Prakash, Associate Professor (Research) and Research Director at the Bharati Institute of Public Policy at the Indian School of Business.
In the "alarmed" category, 52% of respondents are from rural areas, 32% from urban areas, and 16% from semi-urban areas. Among "the concerned, 58% are rural dwellers, 27% are urban, and 15% are semi-urban. The breakup among "the cautious" is 61% rural, 26% urban, and 13% semi-urban. As for "the disengaged, 45% of them are from the rural population, while 29% are urban and 26% are semi-urban.
The study has also found that most of the people surveyed said they had noticed changes in weather, with rains increasing or decreasing and temperatures going up, and many have accepted their vulnerability to extreme climate events and a longer duration for recovery from such events.
The Yale Programme on Climate Change Communication and the Centre for Voting Opinion and Trends in Election Research conducted a survey among a participatory Indian population of 4,619 Indians, all aged above 18, from Oct. 21, 2021, to Jan. 9, 2022.
Anthony Leiserowitz of the Yale Programme on Climate Change Communication and Jagadish Thaker of the University of Queensland were the principal investigators.
Essential Business Intelligence, Sharp Market Insights, Practical Personal Finance Advice, Daily Fuel, Gold and Silver Prices and Latest Stories — On NDTV Profit.
