Support for climate action remains strong

The results of the 2020 City of Edmonton’s Climate Change and Energy Perceptions survey are generally consistent with those observed in previous years, although this year data was collected five months into the COVID pandemic.

According to the results, 74 per cent of Edmontonians are concerned about climate change and 75 per cent agree on the need to take action now. Also, 71 per cent agree that climate change is caused mostly by human activities.

A large majority of Edmontonians recognize economic and employment opportunities associated with addressing climate change. Specifically, 71 per cent agree that investing in energy efficiency provides job opportunities for Edmonton, 67 per cent agree that transitioning to renewable sources of energy provides job opportunities for the city, and 64 per cent agree that efforts to prevent climate change present economic opportunity for Edmonton.

“This tells us that support for climate action remains strong and the majority of Edmontonians see an opportunity to recover and diversify our economy while addressing climate change,” says Paul Ross, the City’s Economic and Environmental Sustainability Branch Manager. “This is in line with what we are seeing from the global community and the efforts to build back better as we recover from the impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic.”

At a personal level, 66 per cent of respondents say they are already taking action to help prevent climate change. Some of the actions mentioned include improving their home’s energy efficiency, driving less (using public transit, active transportation) and changing habits and consumption choices.

Edmontonians want to see more action on climate change, with 69 per cent wanting to do more personally and 66 per cent wanting the City of Edmonton to either maintain or increase efforts.

The online survey was done by Narrative Research, an accredited research company, and data was collected from August 7-16, 2020. This general population panel survey had a sample of 1,001 Edmontonians. As this is a general population non-probability panel survey, to report a margin of error is inappropriate. If this were a probability sample, the margin of error would be +/- 3.1 percentage points, 19 times out of 20, based on this sample size.