Climate activism includes organized protest, political pressure, donations, volunteering, public conversation, and everyday climate action. Recent survey estimates show broad support for stronger government action, while direct participation is more limited and varies by age, political affiliation, geography, and the type of activity measured.
Table of contents
- Scale, reach, and public mandate
- Direct participation in the United States
- Who participates
- Climate conversations and digital engagement
- Public priorities and pressure points
- European climate-action behaviors
Scale, reach, and public mandate
The 2024 Peoples’ Climate Vote surveyed more than 75,000 people in 77 countries representing 87% of the global population. Its results describe survey estimates of public opinion, not counts of activists. Even with that distinction, the figures show a strong international mandate for government action.
According to the United Nations Development Programme’s 2024 Peoples’ Climate Vote, 80% of people globally wanted their governments to take stronger action on climate change. The appetite for international cooperation was even higher: 86% wanted their countries to set aside geopolitical differences and work together on climate change.
Support for stronger national action varied substantially by country. In the United States, 66% of respondents wanted stronger national climate action. The corresponding figure was 73% in China and 93% in Italy. Other reported results included 77% in South Africa, 77% in India, 85% in Brazil, and 88% in Iran.
| Survey estimate | Geography | Measurement period |
|---|---|---|
| 80% wanted stronger government action | Global | 2024 |
| 66% wanted stronger national action | United States | 2024 |
| 73% wanted stronger national action | China | 2024 |
| 93% wanted stronger national action | Italy | 2024 |
| 85% wanted stronger national action | Brazil | 2024 |
Fossil-fuel transition also had majority support. Globally, 72% supported a quick transition away from fossil fuels. The estimate was 89% in Nigeria and 54% in the United States. These results measure support for a policy direction; they do not measure attendance at demonstrations or membership in an activist organization.
Climate concern also appears in personal attention and decision-making. Globally, 56% said they thought about climate change daily or weekly, and 69% said climate change was affecting big decisions such as where they live or work. In the same 2024 survey, 53% said they were more worried about climate change than one year earlier. Among people across the nine surveyed Small Island Developing States, that figure was 71%. In Least Developed Countries, 63% said they thought about climate change daily or weekly.
Direct participation in the United States
U.S. survey estimates show that climate activism is broader than protest attendance. The Pew Research Center study on climate engagement and activism asked U.S. adults about four activities during the previous 12 months: donating money to a climate-change organization, contacting an elected official, volunteering for a climate-focused activity, and attending a climate-change protest or rally.
In 2021, 16% of U.S. adults said they had donated money to a climate-change organization in the previous year. Ten percent said they had contacted an elected official to urge action on climate change, and 10% said they had volunteered for a climate-focused activity. Six percent said they had attended a climate-change protest or rally.
Across the four activities, 24% of U.S. adults said they had done at least one during the previous 12 months. Because respondents could have taken more than one action, these percentages should not be added together. The combined measure is useful because it captures several routes into activism, including financial support and civic pressure as well as public demonstrations.
A separate Pew Research Center survey on climate activism measured the same four activity types in 2023. In that wave, 21% of U.S. adults reported at least one measured climate-activism activity in the previous year. The 2021 and 2023 figures come from separate survey waves. They are comparable descriptions of the same activity types, not a tracking record of the same individuals.
Who participates
Participation differs across political affiliation and age groups. In the 2023 Pew survey, 32% of Democratic and Democratic-leaning U.S. adults reported at least one measured climate-activism activity in the previous year. The corresponding estimate for Republican and Republican-leaning adults was 10%.
Age differences were also visible in the 2023 results. Thirty percent of U.S. adults ages 18–29 reported at least one measured activity in the previous year, compared with 17% of adults ages 65 and older. These figures describe the four measured activities and should not be interpreted as a complete measure of every form of climate participation.
The earlier 2021 Pew wave reported participation by generation. Thirty-two percent of Gen Z U.S. adults had done at least one measured climate-action activity in the previous year, compared with 28% of Millennials, 23% of Gen X, and 21% of Baby Boomer and older adults.
Concern followed a related pattern, although concern and action are different measures. In 2021, 31% of U.S. adults called addressing global climate change a top personal concern. The estimate was 49% among Democrats and 10% among Republicans. By generation, 37% of Gen Z adults and 33% of Millennial adults named it a top personal concern, compared with 27% of Gen X adults.
The figures suggest that climate activism has a participation gap: the share identifying climate change as a major concern can differ from the share taking one of the measured actions. A concern estimate does not establish that a person will donate, contact an official, volunteer, or attend a protest.
Climate conversations and digital engagement
Climate activism can spread through conversations and social networks before it becomes a formal activity. In 2021, 56% of U.S. adults said they talked about climate change at least sometimes, according to Pew’s Climate engagement and activism report. Eighteen percent said they had discussed the need for climate action at least a few times each week recently, while 43% said they never discussed the need for climate action in the previous few weeks.
Personal networks were part of that climate conversation. Twenty-six percent of U.S. adults said a friend or family member had encouraged them to get more involved in climate efforts. Thirteen percent said a friend or family member had criticized them for not doing enough on climate change.
Social media provided another channel. Forty-six percent of U.S. social-media users had seen climate-related content in the previous few weeks. Among Gen Z U.S. social-media users, 56% had seen content about addressing global climate change in that period.
Following and interacting with content were less common than simply seeing it. Twenty-one percent of U.S. social-media users said they followed an account focused on climate action, and 21% said they had interacted with a climate-action post in the previous few weeks. Twelve percent said they had posted or shared a climate-action post during that period.
These measures distinguish exposure from participation. Seeing a post is not the same as sharing it, and sharing is not the same as joining an organization or attending a protest. The survey results show a ladder of digital engagement, but they do not establish that online activity caused offline action.
Public priorities and pressure points
The 2024 Peoples’ Climate Vote also measured whether people wanted countries to change their existing climate commitments. Globally, 13% said their country should keep its climate commitments unchanged, while 5% said it should weaken them. Alongside the 80% who wanted stronger government action, these results indicate that maintaining or reducing ambition was a minority position in the reported global estimates.
Views were not identical across demographic groups in every country. In Germany, 75% of women and 58% of men wanted stronger climate-action commitments. This is a country-specific comparison from the 2024 survey and should not be generalized to all countries or all populations.
Public pressure also reflects unequal exposure and unequal urgency. Fifty-three percent of people globally said they were more worried about climate change than one year earlier. The figure of 71% across the nine surveyed Small Island Developing States shows how concern can be especially high in places facing acute climate-related risks. Separately, 63% of people in Least Developed Countries said they thought about climate change daily or weekly.
The European Commission’s 2025 survey summary adds public-health and institutional context for the European Union. Its citizen support for climate action results found that 85% of EU respondents said climate action should be a priority for improving public health. The same share, 85%, considered climate change a serious problem for the world.
European climate-action behaviors
In the European Commission’s 2025 survey summary, 81% of EU respondents supported the EU goal of climate neutrality by 2050. Eighty-eight percent supported greater EU investment in renewable energy and energy efficiency. These are estimates of civic support for goals and investment, not measures of activist membership.
Respondents assigned responsibility to more than one level of government. Sixty-six percent identified national governments as best placed to tackle climate change, while 59% identified the European Union as best placed. Thirty-eight percent felt personally exposed to environmental and climate-related risks.
The survey also asked about recent behavior. Fifty-nine percent of EU respondents said they had taken an action combating climate change in the previous six months. This is broader than organized protest activism. Among specific actions, 64% said they reduced and recycled waste as a climate action, and 49% said they cut down on disposable items whenever possible.
| European Union survey estimate | Share | Period |
|---|---|---|
| Supported climate neutrality by 2050 | 81% | 2025 survey summary |
| Supported greater investment in renewables and efficiency | 88% | 2025 survey summary |
| Took an action combating climate change | 59% | Previous six months |
| Reduced and recycled waste | 64% | 2025 survey summary |
| Cut down on disposable items | 49% | 2025 survey summary |
Information quality is itself a pressure point for climate action. Forty-nine percent of EU respondents said it was difficult to differentiate reliable climate information from disinformation on social media. That result helps explain why digital reach should not be treated as equivalent to informed participation: online visibility can be widespread while confidence in the information environment remains limited.
Taken together, the European results show several layers of engagement: support for long-term policy goals, expectations of government responsibility, personal risk perception, and reported household behavior. The 59% action estimate is intentionally retained under everyday climate-action behavior because the European Commission’s measure is broader than organized climate activism.