Most Houston-area respondents from across the political spectrum said they believe in the effects of climate change and support practical, efficiency-based policy solutions. (Credit Getty Images)
Key Takeaways
- Nearly 87% of SPACE City Panel respondents acknowledged climate change is happening, while only 3.7% denied its existence and 9.5% said they weren鈥檛 sure or felt they didn鈥檛 have enough information.
- Broad support exists for efficiency-enhancing policies to address climate change, compared to more technical policies such as carbon capture.
- 67.6% of residents favor expanding urban green spaces, viewing them as beneficial for both climate resilience and everyday community well-being.
Most Houston-area residents from across the political spectrum said they believe in the effects of climate change and support practical, efficiency-based policy solutions, according to a new report from the 91破解版鈥檚 Hobby School of Public Affairs.
This is the second wave of responses from the Survey on Public Attitudes and Community Engagement City Panel, or , which is a longitudinal research initiative from the Center for Public Policy that quarterly tracks the views of about 5,000 residents from nine Greater Houston-area counties.
While 86.8% of respondents believe in the effects of climate change, their thoughts on the main causes vary along partisan lines. Almost half of Democratic respondents (48.4%) attributed climate change mostly to human activities compared to only 13.3% of Republicans, who mostly attributed it to natural changes in the environment.
This divide between parties mirrored policy decisions from the latest Texas Legislature, said Maria P. Perez Arguelles, lead researcher on the report and research assistant professor at the Hobby School.
鈥淟awmakers passed more bills that were aimed at strengthening the power grid or expanding the reliability of energy supply,鈥� Perez Arguelles said. 鈥淏ut other bills targeting renewable energy development and those that targeted wind and solar installations, for example, didn鈥檛 pass.鈥�
Other key findings from the report include:
- 58.7% of respondents believe that climate change will harm future generations, compared to 25.2% who believe it harms themselves 鈥渁 great deal.鈥�
- More than half of respondents identified the oil and gas industry (57.7%) and governments of developed counties (51.1%) as the top two entities 鈥渧ery responsible鈥� for climate change.
Meanwhile, researchers found respondents overwhelmingly support creating more urban green spaces, with 67.6% saying the spaces offer more good than harm compared to other climate change-related policies.
Overall, respondents showed stronger support for policies promoting energy efficiency 鈥� such as improving energy use in homes, vehicles and factories 鈥� over more technical solutions like carbon capture. These solutions are seen as more effective and more likely to garner bipartisan support.
鈥淲hat these results suggest is that those policies that promote efficiency and visible community benefits 鈥� so things that people can visualize and see translated into everyday lives 鈥� have a higher chance of gaining bipartisan support in the Greater Houston area,鈥� Perez Arguelles said.
The is available on the . The survey was conducted Aug. 11-Sept. 4.
A previous report in the series focused on , and a future report for this quarter will cover household finances.