How do church attenders view issues relate to climate change? Is the Australian government doing enough in its response?
Churchgoers from across 20 denominations were asked in the 2016 and 2021 NCLS about their views on climate change.
Over half of churchgoers say climate change is happening and is largely human caused.
In the 2021 survey, just over half of churchgoers said they thought climate change is happening and is largely caused by humans (no change from 2016, following a 12 percentage point increase between 2011 and 2016). Just under a third thought it was a natural fluctuation in temperature (up 1 percentage point since 2016, after a 7 percentage point decrease between 2011 and 2016). Just over 1 in 10 either said they are not sure or they don’t think it’s happening (compared to 13% in 2016). Therefore, views did not change much between 2016 and 2021.
Citation Bosman, C. (2023). Church attender views on climate change. NCLS Research Fact Sheet 23006. Sydney: NCLS Research.