A Continuing Investigation and Comparison of Chinese & American Climate Change Views I

Abstract

The importance of the roles of China and the United States cannot be overstated regarding the development/implementation of international climate change mitigation policies. Surveys were conducted in China and the U.S. in 2015 (N=7,556) and 2017 (N=7,415) to investigate people’s support for an international climate treaty. A climate change acceptance/knowledge/concern score (from -10 to 10) was calculated for respondents in both years using a set of eight questions from the survey. In both 2015 and 2017, scores for Chinese were on average higher than Americans, while the American scores were more variable. Largely due to an increase in concern among U.S. respondents in 2017, the difference in American and Chinese mean scores decreased compared to 2015.Two additional questions were used to explore support for an international climate treaty. One question was unconditional, while the other was conditional on nonparticipation of the other country. Responses from both nations indicate a significant withdraw of support for the conditional question. However, Chinese respondents showed significantly greater support in both years compared to Americans. Like the climate change score, US unconditional and conditional treaty support increased in 2017 with little change in China, decreasing the gap between American and Chinese respondents.