A reminder before COP30: The world supports climate action

Nov 4, 2025 | Beliefs and Attitudes, Climate Notes

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The 30th United Nations Climate Change Conference of the Parties (COP30) in Belém, Brazil, begins on November 10, 2025. The two-week conference will convene most of the world’s nations to accelerate action toward the goals of the Paris Agreement and the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change. Marking 10 years since the Paris Agreement — when nearly every country pledged to limit global warming to well below 2ºC compared to pre-industrial levels — this year’s conference comes at a pivotal moment, amid growing evidence of the need for stronger and faster global climate action.

As world leaders prepare for these critical negotiations, understanding public attitudes toward climate change is more important than ever. In the days before COP30, we’re sharing some key insights from our climate opinion research in the U.S. and around the world.

Support for the Paris Agreement

In May 2025, with our partners at Yale University, we found that 79% of U.S. registered voters support the United States’ participation in the Paris Climate Agreement, and 65% opposed President Trump’s decision to withdraw from the Agreement. Support has remained very high (more than 90%) among liberal and moderate/conservative Democrats since we first asked this question in October 2017. Support has varied among Republicans over time, but support for U.S. participation has increased since 2021 among both liberal/moderate Republicans and conservative Republicans.

Other Top Insights:

  • Many people in the Global South are still not aware of climate change. In a recent survey in India, conducted by Yale University, 27% of Indians have not heard of global warming, and in Yale’s upcoming report from Indonesia, they find that 21% of Indonesians have not heard of climate change. Nonetheless, in both countries, once given a one-sentence description, large majorities say that it is happening. These results are consistent with research findings that many people in African and South Asian nations also know little to nothing about climate change, and that climate belief systems in these areas are looser and less dense, indicating less firmly-held opinions.
  • However, people worldwide say climate change is affecting hazards like heat waves, floods, and storms and say climate change is making them worse. For example, research in the United States, India, and many lower-income and lower-emissions countries finds that millions of people say climate change is making heat waves worse and are very worried about these extreme events. Extreme weather events, which focus the attention of the public, policymakers, and the media, are “teachable moments” that can raise public awareness and concern about climate change.
  • Messages that emphasize the harms of climate change from extreme weather, and the threat to our children’s future, are effective across many countries and audiences. Although different countries experience global warming in different ways, a message experiment across 23 countries found that an “urgency and generational” message (i.e., that climate change and extreme weather are harming us now and will harm our children in the future) had the largest positive effect of all messages tested on support for climate action. Additionally, all tested messages had positive effects, with no messages producing polarizing or backfire effects.
  • Majorities in many countries are Alarmed about climate change, especially in Latin America. Our prior research has identified six distinct audiences within the U.S. public — the Alarmed, Concerned, Cautious, Disengaged, Doubtful, and Dismissive — based on their beliefs and attitudes about climate change. Our partners at Yale University applied this analysis to an international survey of more than 100 countries and territories worldwide, finding that half or more respondents in thirty-one areas are Alarmed, and the areas with the largest percentage of Alarmed are Puerto Rico (70%), El Salvador (67%), Costa Rica (65%), Chile (64%), and Panama (64%). Additionally, majorities are Alarmed in five of the top 15 emitters — Mexico (62%), India (58%), Brazil (57%), Türkiye (53%), and South Korea (52%). 
  • The 2024 U.S. election was not a referendum on climate change — Americans’ understanding that global warming is happening and a serious problem, and their support for climate action, did not change before, during, or after the election. As of May 2025, the number of Americans who think global warming is happening outnumber those who think it is not by a ratio of more than 4 to 1 (69% versus 15%), and 65% are worried about it. Majorities of registered voters support a range of policies to reduce carbon pollution and promote clean energy. And majorities of registered voters want corporations and industry, government, and citizens to do more to address global warming.

Additional International Resources on Climate Change and Health:

Around the world, global policy stakeholders are integrating climate policy and health policy. Below, we share additional Mason 4C research, partner toolkits, and resources for advancing climate and health policy globally: