Only 5% of SA adults think climate change is a priority, survey shows

South Africans tend to place environmental problems and climate change very low on their list of issues facing the country, despite widespread extreme weather events that have been attributed to climate change, nationally representative survey evidence suggests.

The survey, conducted by the Presidential Climate Commission (PCC) that examined the public’s perception of climate change and the just transition by interviewing more than 3,000 people over the age of 16, has shown that South Africans are far more concerned about issues such as unemployment, crime and corruption, the cost of living and service delivery.

Only 5% of adults mentioned environmental issues, including climate change, as a priority issue relative to other pressing concerns when asked to list the three most important challenges facing SA. In contrast, almost three-quarters of respondents listed unemployment as their top concern, 47% listed crime and safety and 36% corruption.

“While economic, safety and service delivery concerns are undoubtedly of critical importance and tend to be given high political priority, climate change is likely to impact these issues further and worsen many of SA’s other existing challenges. Addressing the challenges posed by climate change is therefore crucial and requires a collective shift in attitudes and behaviour,” the survey said.

Policy decisions

This was especially important given that public attitudes could influence political will and policy decisions. While climate change ranked low as a priority concern, a large portion (74%) of respondents experienced some level of fallout related to climate change, varying from being exposed “to a great extent” (14%), “some extent” (28%) and “a minor extent” (32%).

The survey also showed that while half of South Africans have at least some awareness of climate change, fewer than a fifth acknowledge that humans are the primary driver of climate change. The UN Development Programme’s (UNDP’s) 2024 Peoples’ Climate Vote survey — the largest standalone public opinion survey on climate change — showed that globally 88% of people were at least somewhat aware of climate change, and just over half have become more worried about the effects of climate change over the past year.

In this survey only 10% of South Africans said they never thought about climate change, 64% said they were more worried about climate change than they were a year ago and 77% said they wanted SA to strengthen its commitments to address climate change.

According to the PCC survey, few South Africans (only 9%) have heard the term “just transition”, but about 70% of respondents are aware of efforts to transition away from coal power to other forms of energy.

“A majority (62%) of South Africans approve of the transition away from coal, but there are still concerns about potential impacts, with 28% reporting that they are extremely or very worried and 29% somewhat worried,” the report said.

This was in line with the UNDP survey, which showed that about two-thirds (62%) of South Africans wanted the government to move quickly on replacing fossil fuels such as coal with renewable energy, compared with the global average of 42%.

One-third of respondents in the PCC survey were concerned the transition would result in high electricity prices and 32% were worried about job losses.

The climate perceptions index — a comprehensive measure that assesses public perceptions of climate change, produced by US-based nonprofit The Social Progress Imperative — ranks SA 38th out of 107 countries based on data from more than 100,000 active Facebook users.

erasmusd@businesslive.co.za