Poll: Two-thirds of Republicans say climate change is 'not an emergency'

A new poll finds that more than two-thirds of Republicans in the United States believe that climate change is “not an emergency,” with Washington’s commitments about to face scrutiny at the 26th UN Climate Conference, also known as COP26, which is slated to begin in Glasgow on October 31.

The Yahoo News/YouGov poll of 1,704 American adults, which was conducted from October 19 to 21, found that 67 percent of Republicans continue to insist that climate change is “not an emergency.”

However, 78 percent of Democrats and 45 percent of independents view climate change as “an existential threat that must be addressed now with major legislation.”

Only 24 percent of Republicans agree that climate change is a serious threat to the US.

More than 6 in 10 Republicans believe that global warming is either “not a real threat” or a threat that “the government has already done enough to address.”

This comes on the heels of a summer that featured record-setting heatwaves, wildfires, and floods that experts said were mostly caused by climate change.

US President Joe Biden has pledged to transition the US economy towards clean energy and reduce emissions from coal, natural gas, and oil. But he is facing problems from climate skeptics in Congress.

A bipartisan infrastructure bill, which is a $1 trillion package, could provide America’s biggest investment in decades in roads, bridges, airports, and waterways.

The bill includes funds for renewable energy and climate resilience but omits some major climate agenda items such as a clean energy standard.

Biden has asked Congress to approve a $36 billion budget for fighting global warming in 2022. 

The lion share of the budget will be allocated to clean energy initiatives, innovations and research, while a lesser share will go to the building infrastructures for storage and transmission of clean energy, as well as retrofitting homes and federal buildings.

Climate change will hit US economy and kill thousands: Report

Gov. report says climate change will shrink the US economy and kill thousands of people.

Independent US Senator Bernie Sanders and Democratic Representatives Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez and Earl Blumenauer in February introduced legislation that required Biden to declare a national emergency on climate change.

Biden brought the US back into the Paris climate accord in January after former US President Donald Trump pulled the country out.

Trump, a Republican, had labeled climate change a hoax, defying widening international support for the Paris agreement to cut greenhouse gas emissions. He argued that the concept of global warming had been “created by and for the Chinese in order to make US manufacturing non-competitive.”

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