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Potential climate policiesPotential climate policies
About the author
Ryan Neelam
Ryan Neelam was Director of the Public Opinion and Foreign Policy Program at the Lowy Institute. He led the flagship annual Lowy Institute Poll, was project director for the Global Diplomacy Index, and wrote about climate diplomacy and multilateral policy.
In 2024, Australians express slim to strong majority support for a range of potential federal government climate-related policies. However, compared to the last time this question was asked in 2022, support has softened mildly for a range of options including a more ambitious national emissions reduction target, hosting a UN climate conference, reducing coal exports, and banning new coal mines, and more notably for introducing an emissions trading scheme. Support remained steady for subsidising renewable technologies, and increasing the use of gas.
Led by the 2022 US Inflation Reduction Act, a number of countries have announced significant subsidies for the development of clean energy technology. In April 2024, following fieldwork for this Poll, the Albanese Labor government announced plans to subsidise renewables production in Australia. The vast majority of Australians (87%) say they would support the government ‘providing subsidies for the development of renewable energy technologies’, steady from 2022 (90%).
Seven in ten Australians (72%) support committing ‘to a more ambitious national emissions reduction target’, down five points from 2022. Under the Paris Agreement on climate change, countries are due to submit to the United Nations an updated 2035 emissions reduction target by 2025.
Australia is bidding to co-host the UN’s annual climate conference of the parties (COP) in 2026, in partnership with other Pacific Islands nations. This initiative appears to have widespread support among Australians (70%), though this figure is down five points from 2022.
Two-thirds of Australians (68%) support ‘making it easier for the citizens of climate-vulnerable countries to migrate to Australia’, in line with support for improving visa access for Pacific Islanders. In November 2023, the Australian and Tuvalu governments announced the Falepili Union, a deal that provides a pathway for Tuvaluans to migrate permanently to Australia in the face of climate change, while further entrenching Australia as Tuvalu’s primary security partner.
A majority of Australians (63%) are also in favour of ‘providing financial support to help developing countries in our region manage the impacts of climate change’. In late 2023, Australia announced it would rejoin the Green Climate Fund, pledging a $50 million contribution.
A majority continue to support reducing coal exports to other countries (60%) and banning new coal mines (59%). While this constitutes a drop of five and four points respectively on 2022 results, it still represents a decisive swing away from more positive public sentiment towards coal less than a decade ago. In 2016, in response to a different question, a majority (66%) said Australia should continue to export coal to developing countries.
In contrast to attitudes towards coal, majority support (58%) remains for ‘increasing the use of gas for Australia’s energy generation’, level with 2022.
Slightly more than half of Australians (55%) support introducing an emissions trading scheme or a carbon tax, a drop of nine points since 2022. While an economy-wide emissions trading scheme is no longer under active debate in Australian politics, the government’s reformed Safeguard Mechanism does allow for emissions trading as part of a system to curb emissions in high-emitting industries.
