New York City, US
Thomson Reuters Foundation
Americans and Russians have grown more dissatisfied with the way their governments address environmental issues in recent years, according to research released on Wednesday of the world’s biggest carbon dioxide emitters.
Residents of China and Saudi Arabia, meanwhile, have become more proud of their countries’ environmental efforts, said the research by Gallup, a prominent US-based polling group.
Sun shines through steam rising from chimneys of a power plant in Moscow, Russia, on 13th November, 2019. PICTURE: Reuters/Maxim Shemetov/File photo
To mark the 50th anniversary of Earth Day, Gallup surveyed attitudes about efforts to fight climate change and preserve the environment in 145 countries.
Overall satisfaction was bolstered by rising levels in Asia and in sub-Saharan Africa, said Julie Ray, Gallup’s managing editor for world news.
“Satisfaction levels in the European Union, Latin America and Northern America, however, continued to falter and move in the opposite direction,” she said.
Among the top emitters of global-warming gases, 56 per cent of Americans said they were dissatisfied with their country’s environmental preservation in 2019, up from 52 per cent in 2017.
“Throughout Donald Trump’s presidency, and even in the last year of President Barack Obama’s second term, Americans have given US efforts in this arena a relatively poor grade,” said Ray.
The US President has made it a priority since taking office in 2017 to roll back environmental regulations he believes are an obstacle to economic development.
The Trump administration filed paperwork in November to withdraw the United States from the Paris Agreement, the 2015 global pact to fight climate change.
In Russia, 59 per cent of respondents said they were dissatisfied, up from 56 per cent in 2017.
Russia pledged in March to cut planet-warming emissions by a third by 2030 from 1990 levels, when the heavily industrial Soviet Union collapsed, although that represents an increase in Russia’s greenhouse gas pollution from today.
In China, 85 per cent of respondents said they were satisfied with their country’s preservation efforts, up from 68 per cent in 2017.
China has said it would raise the share of non-fossil fuels in its total energy mix to 20 per cent by the end of the next decade, up from 15 per cent in 2020.
In Saudi Arabia, 79 per cent of respondents were satisfied with their country’s job preserving the environment as opposed to 71 per cent in 2017, it said.
Saudi Arabia, the world’s largest exporter of oil, said in October of last year it was planning to launch a carbon-trading scheme to diversify its energy supplies and reduce carbon emissions.
