Most Americans Approve of Government-Led Climate Action, but Support for Some Policies is Cooling

💡 What’s the story? 

In a new survey of American opinions on climate, a research team from Stanford University, Resources for the Future (RFF), and the survey research firm ReconMR has found that Americans widely support government action to tackle climate change—but support for some specific policies that reduce emissions has dropped since 2020.  

This survey, part of the Climate Insights 2024 series, examines American opinions on specific federal government policies related to consumer incentives, carbon pricing, regulations, and tax incentives for companies.  

🌎 What are some key findings? 

• Americans are cooling on clean transportation: 62 percent of respondents favor government action to increase the fuel efficiency of automobiles, down from 72 percent in 2020. Similarly, 46 percent of respondents want the government to give tax breaks to encourage, or otherwise require, companies to build electric vehicles, a decline from 60 percent in 2015.  
• 72 percent of respondents believe that the US government should offer tax breaks to utilities that produce renewable energy. This is a marked decline from the 85 percent who believed this in 2020. 
• A growing minority of Americans believe that climate action will hurt the economy: 36 percent believe that climate action will hurt the US economy (up from 29 percent in 2020), and 34 percent believe it would hurt their state’s economy (up from 24 percent in 2020).  
• 84 percent of respondents are in favor of taxing foreign companies for importing products that are associated with more greenhouse gas emissions than a comparable US product. This is the largest majority that the research team saw in this survey installment.  
• 52 percent of respondents favor permitting reform policies to speed up the approval process for power plants that generate electricity from renewable energy.