Reflecting a remarkable consensus, fully nine out of ten WWViews participants from around the world urge their COP15 delegations to reach a new, binding climate change deal at COP15, rather than waiting until later.

 

OBSERVATIONS

• Worldwide 91% of the participants answer that it is urgent to make a deal at COP15.

• Conversely, only 7% say that it is acceptable to wait until after COP15 to reach a new international climate deal. Only 1% “do not want a global deal”.

• Around the world this result is quite consistent across all national income levels: in 36 out of 38 countries, 80% or more of the participants agreed that it is urgent to make a deal at COP15. There are only two exceptions. One is Russia, in which nonetheless two-thirds (67%) communicate urgency, while 28 percent answer that it is important to reach a deal, but it can wait a few years. The other is China, in which 51% find it urgent to reach a deal at COP15, 11% vote that a deal could wait a few years, and 29% have no opinion or do not wish to answer.

ASSESSMENTS
The WWViews participants’ strong and transnationally consistent expressions of urgency for reaching an agreement at COP15 send a strong message to their negotiators. This message contrasts with the equivocation that some leaders of key nations have expressed on this score in the months immediately preceding COP15.

The overwhelming worldwide support among participants for reaching a deal at COP15 is reinforced by the 90% support worldwide for having one’s own politicians actually sign such an agreement. Here too, there is appreciable consistency among national responses. In almost all nations, support for having one’s own nation sign on to a new global climate deal stands at twothirds (67%) or higher.

It is also noteworthy that despite considerable
national variation in levels of personal concern with the repercussions of global warming, there is strong international consistency when it comes to the urgency of sealing a deal at OP15.