COP30, CLIMATE RISK: WHAT PEOPLE THINK

The 30th UN climate change conference began on Monday amid a credibility crisis.

- BY MANJUL PAUL

Within a decade of the landmark 2015 Paris Agreement, global temperatures breached the critical 1.5°C threshold in 2024. Meanwhile, the world's largest historical emitter, the US, under Donald Trump's presidency, has once again threatened to withdraw from commitments to reduce global warming.

While world leaders struggle to contain the climate crisis, vulnerable communities bear the brunt. Younger people from middle-income countries say they are ready to make changes to lifestyles and hope for global cooperation. Mint explores two recent surveys that shed light on people's attitudes towards climate change.

EFFECTIVE OR SYMBOLIC?

WHILE CONFERENCE of the Parties (COP) to the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change have produced landmark agreements such as the Kyoto Protocol (binding targets to cut greenhouse emissions) and the 2015 Paris Agreement (limiting global warming to well below 2°C), overall progress remains slow and inadequate. Three decades since its inception, debates rage on about COP's effectiveness.

A recent survey of 23,700 respondents across 30 countries by Paris-based market research firm Ipsos Global Advisor showed that nearly one in two people (49%) believe COP30 is "merely symbolic" and doesn't drive real climate action, while a third believe it will prove "effective". The remaining 17% were neutral. Developed nations were largely sceptical, with 46% in the US and 73% in France saying the summit is merely symbolic. In contrast, this figure was much smaller in countries such as India (28%), Indonesia (16%) and South Africa (37%), among others.