South Africans are more fed up than most about the lack of firm action to minimise the impact of climate change.
On Saturday, a "live" worldwide survey of climate change attitudes of about 10,000 people in 100 countries revealed growing impatience with climate change mitigation measures. It also revealed an opinion that climate change "country inspections" and annual reports should be enforced to help avert a global meltdown.
The survey was conducted by World Wide Views on Climate and Energy, a global citizen consultation. The responses were collated into national scores and released online this weekend.
Almost 80% of respondents said they were "very concerned" about climate change impacts, and nearly two-thirds thought the world should do "whatever it takes" to limit global temperature increase to just 2C.
At current rates it could increase by up to 4C by the end of the century.
In addition, almost half of respondents felt there should be a moratorium on exploration for all fossil fuels.
Survey results showed that the sample group of 50 South Africans were largely in sync with international opinion, although less impressed with mitigation measures compared to the international average. Only 6% of South Africans were satisfied with the outcomes of UN climate negotiations to date compared with 18% worldwide.
Less than half of South Africans supported the idea of legally binding targets for zero carbon emissions by the end of the century (worldwide 68%), and 37% felt legally binding targets should apply only to developed or emerging nations (worldwide 17%).
Lucy Martin, business development manager for survey organisers OneWorld, said the results would be presented at side events of the UN climate summit in Paris in November.
Source: The Times
