Vast majority of Malaysians polled blame humans for climate change

PETALING JAYA: An overwhelming 95% of the 1,199 Malaysians who responded to YouGov's International Climate Change Survey believe that climate change is real and 85% believe that it will affect their lives.

The report surveyed 30,000 people in 28 countries and was published ahead of the Global Climate Strike last weekend, and it showed that Malaysians generally agree with the worldview that drastic changes need to be made to avoid the impact of climate change and that governments are not doing enough about it.

The report found that 48% of Malaysians believe that human activity is mainly responsible for climate change, while 43% believe that humans are only partly responsible and 4% said that human activity is not responsible.

The report also showed that only 1% of Malaysian respondents do not believe that the climate is changing.

On the impact of climate change, 83% of Malaysians believe it will most likely lead to cities being lost to rising sea levels, 80% believe that it will cause serious damage to the global economy and 73% believe that it will cause mass displacement of people.

A large majority - 65% - also believe that climate change will lead to small wars, while 60% believe that it will lead to the extinction of the human race and 56% believe that it will lead to a new world war.

At the same time, the survey found that 68% of Malaysians think the country could be doing more to tackle climate change while only 22% think that the government is already doing as much as it reasonably can.

The Malaysians surveyed said international bodies like the United Nations, governments from wealthy and developing countries, as well as businesses and industries are equally responsible for the current situation.

Out of the Malaysians who responded, 80% believe that governments of wealthy countries have the most power to tackle climate change, followed by 78% who believe that international bodies have the power to address climate change.

Additionally, 75% of Malaysian respondents believe that governments of developing countries can address climate change while 73% believe that businesses and industries can address it and 53% believe that individuals can address climate change.

Despite the gloomy outlook, the survey found that the public is hopeful that the impact of climate change can be averted as 68% of Malaysian respondents said the worst effects of climate change could be avoided through drastic changes, while 19% believe that the current action being carried out is sufficient.

It also found out that 57% of Malaysians, who responded, prefer governments and societies to reduce consumption of resources to slow the negative effects of climate change, while 35% of Malaysians who opted for technological solutions.

The Malaysian edition of the Global Climate Strike campaign demanding government action to address the climate change crisis was held on Saturday (Sept 21).

The strike was spearheaded by pressure group Klima Action Malaysia (Kamy) with Greenpeace Malaysia and Amnesty International Malaysia, and it was centred on the haze plaguing Malaysia and some of its Asean neighbours.

The group said they sought to “smash” the wall of political and media silence on the climate crisis, declare a climate emergency for financial and policy mobilisation, raise awareness among Malaysians about the climate crisis and raise the visibility of the climate narrative from developing countries.