The nonprofit Alliance for Market Solutions released new polling on millennial attitudes about the reality of human-induced climate change and efforts to combat it.
The bottom line: Millennials are broadly convinced human-induced climate change is real and deserves action, but millennial Republicans are relatively less concerned.
By the numbers: Here are a few takeaways from the polling conducted for the Alliance, a group pushing for conservatives to embrace a revenue-neutral carbon tax married to repeal of regulations.
- Slightly over three-fourths of millennials agree that humans should take steps to slow or stop climate change.
- Majorities of varying degrees of Democrats, independents and Republicans want action (see chart above).
- 62% of millennials say the climate is changing due to human activity, though under half of the young Republicans polled said this comes closest to their view. (Note: The consensus view among scientists is that human activities are the primary driver of rising temperatures.)
- Almost 70% of millennials say climate change will either seriously or somewhat affect them in their lifetimes.
- A slim majority (51%) of young Republicans are concerned about climate change, while 61% are concerned about air pollution.
Quoted: Alliance executive director Alex Flint said the findings show that policymakers should consider "forward-looking solutions."
“Cutting outdated energy regulations that stifle growth and replacing them with a revenue-neutral carbon tax will help grow the economy and create a market for clean-energy technologies, allowing markets to lead on reducing carbon pollution instead of government."— Alex Flint, in a statement