82% of Indians either alarmed or concerned about global warming, says study

About 82 per cent 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 Program 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 per cent, 'The Concerned', 20 per cent, 'The Cautious', 11 per cent, and 'The Disengaged', consisting of just 7 per cent.

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 also expressed 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 ISB (Indian School of Business).

In 'The Alarmed' catergory, 52 per cent of respondents are from rural areas, 32 per cent from urban areas and 16 per cent semi-urban. Among 'The Concerned', 58 per cent are rural dwellers, 27 per cent urban, and 15 per cent semi-urban. The breakup among 'The Cautious' is 61 per cent rural, 26 per cent urban and 13 per cent semi-urban. As for 'The Disengaged', 45 per cent of them are from the rural population, while 29 are urban and 26 per cent 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 the vulnerability to extreme climate events and a longer duration for recovery from such events.

The Yale Program on Climate Change Communication and the Center for Voting Opinion and Trends in Election Research (CVoter) conducted a survey among a participatory Indian population of 4,619 Indians, all aged above 18 from October 21, 2021 to January 9, 2022.

Anthony Leiserowitz of the Yale Program on Climate Change Communication and Jagadish Thaker of the University of Queensland were the principal investigators.