Survey Reveals Kingstonians Support Climate Action

Published on: 2019/05/15 - in News

Kingston Climate Hub has issued the results of its April survey about climate change and attitudes toward taking action, which revealed that 86 percent believe — at a minimum — that the City should do something to fight climate change.

“Being strong supporters of climate action, we were worried about asking some of the questions we did because we had no idea of the outcome,” said Colleen Gareau, co-founder of the Hub.

“At the same time, we firmly believed that it was important to hear as many different points-of-view as possible,” Gareau added. “That’s why we paid for ads on Facebook and Twitter and Emily hand-delivered 1,500 flyers to as many homes in every district as she could get to.”


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Some key findings of the survey include:

Of 1,001 respondents:

  • 76% strongly agree and 13% somewhat agree that the earth is getting warmer
  • 74% strongly agree and 12% somewhat agree that storms and extreme weather are happening more often
  • 53% strongly agree and 28% somewhat agree that Kingston is feeling the effects of climate change
  • 53% strongly agree and 44% somewhat agree that they have a good understanding of climate change
  • 67% strongly agree and 17% somewhat agree that humans are the primary cause of climate change
  • 71% strongly support and 12% somewhat support climate action

Of 950 respondents:

  • 83% said they knew that Kingston had declared a climate emergency
  • 25% strongly agreed and 42% somewhat agreed that they understood what a climate emergency is
  • 59% strongly agreed and 16% somewhat agreed with Kingston declaring the emergency

Of 909 respondents, the majority supported a range of climate actions, however the three that had the highest degree of support were:

  • 72% strongly supported and 18% somewhat supported increasing recycling and composting in apartments and industry.
  • 70% strongly supported and 17% somewhat supported increasing access to affordable, green energy for everyone.
  • 68% strongly supported and 20% somewhat supported making it easier to bus, bike, walk or roll instead of driving.

In terms of paying for climate action, most residents agreed that they would be willing to pay something for climate action. Of 909 respondents:

  • 57% strongly agreed and 13% somewhat agreed that they would pay $1.75 per month for local climate action.
  • 48% strongly agreed and 16% somewhat agreed that they would pay $3.50 per month for local climate action.
  • 44% strongly agreed and 15% somewhat agreed that they would pay $5.00 per month for local climate action.
  • 66% strongly disagreed and 8% somewhat disagreed with the statement: I would not contribute to local climate action.

“We were very happy to see that people from all age groups from under 20s to over 80s and from every political stripe participated in the survey,” said Emily Ferguson, co-founder of the Hub. “We believe that this survey is strongly representative of the feelings of residents of Kingston and hope the results spur intensive climate action that, in turn, results in developing green businesses in our city.”

Find more information in the news section at kingstonclimatehub.ca


Details: Kingston Climate Hub
Photo: Pixabay (cc)