(01/05/10) -

Americans Welcome Some of the Provisions in Copenhagen Accord

Only 40 per cent are satisfied with President Barack Obama’s performance at last month’s Climate Summit.

Only 40 per cent are satisfied with President Barack Obama’s performance at last month’s Climate Summit.

Few Americans applaud the performance of President Barack Obama at last month’s Climate Summit in Copenhagen, Denmark, but are happy with some of the promises made at the meeting, a new Angus Reid Public Opinion poll has found.

In the online survey of a representative national sample of 1,005 American adults, only two-in-five respondents (40%) are satisfied with the American president’s actions at the December summit sponsored by the United Nations (UN) to discuss global warming. Thirty-five per cent of Americans express dissatisfaction with Obama’s performance at the meeting.

The Copenhagen Accord

Americans are not overly happy with the final accord from the global summit. Only a quarter of them (26%) are satisfied with the fact that countries did not sign a legally binding agreement. Forty-two per cent welcome a promise to hold the increase in global temperatures below two degrees Celsius, and 39 per cent agree with a pact to set up a fund to help poorer nations cope with climate change.

The only provision in the Copenhagen Accord that elicits a positive response from a majority of Americans (57%) is the commitment to reduce global greenhouse gas emissions by half relative to 1990 levels by 2020.

Two-thirds of Americans (66%) express little or no confidence in countries being able to reach the goal of keeping rising temperatures below two degrees Celsius, and only 19 per cent think the Copenhagen Accord will become legally binding in the future.

Copenhagen and Climate Change: An Analysis

Respondents can be roughly divided into those who believe global warming is a fact and say it is caused by human activity (1); those who think global warming is a reality but is caused by natural changes (2), and those who think global warming is an unproven theory (3).

Most Americans falling in the first group (51%) are content with President Obama’s performance at the Copenhagen conference, but this is true for only 39 per cent and 21 per cent of respondents in the two following groups.

Those in the first group are more inclined to express frustration at the fact that the Copenhagen Accord is not legally binding (54% are dissatisfied with this) than those in the second (42%) and third groups (34%).

A similar proportion of respondents in the first two groups (49% and 43% respectively) are satisfied with signatories to the pact agreeing to hold increasing temperatures below the two-degree mark, while only 31 per cent of people in the third group agree.

Most respondents in the first group welcome the fund to help poor nations deal with global warming (52%), but less than 35 per cent of respondents in the other two groups agree. And a majority of Americans in the first and second categories (70% and 52%, respectively) agree with the commitment to lower global emission levels by half below 1990 levels by 2020, but only 38 per cent of those in the third group share this view.

Full Report, Detailed Tables and Methodology (PDF)

CONTACT:

Mario Canseco, Vice President, Public Affairs
+604 647 3570
mario.canseco@angus-reid.com