Canadian support for climate change initiatives lags ahead of COP27: Ipsos

Ahead of COP27, Canada ranks at the bottom when it comes to public support to help tackle climate change, a new factum released Sunday found.

Ahead of the COP27 forum, Canada appears to rank near the bottom of 34 countries when it comes to public support for measures to help tackle climate change, a new poll suggests.

When asked about support for a range of initiatives governments could propose, such as subsidies for clean technology and providing incentives to invest in green financial products, Ipsos polling of citizens from 34 countries indicates support among Canadians ranks between the 27th and 31st spots.

“These results are shocking,” Sanyam Sethi, vice president of Ipsos Public Affairs, told Global News. “Canadians are not as engaged as they should be in the climate debate.”

“While there is support in many counties on a lot of these initiatives, what we’re seeing in Canada is very, very different,” she added.

The results come ahead of the 27th annual Conference of the 198 Parties of the U.N. Framework Convention on Climate Change — better known as COP27 — in Egypt.

The summit begins Sunday in the Egyptian resort of Sharm el-Sheikh.

On Thursday, four days before the start of the conference, U.N. Security General Antonio Guterres warned that the planet is headed toward irreversible “climate chaos.”

He said COP27 “must be the place to rebuild trust and re-establish the ambition needed to avoid driving our planet over the climate cliff,” noting that the most important outcome of the summit is to have “a clear political will to reduce emissions faster.”