As world leaders include Barack Obama converge on Paris this week for a United Nations conference on climate change, a new poll shows the majority of Americans want to join an international treaty to combat global warming.
The poll, conducted by The New York Times and CBS, found that 56 percent of respondents—including 49 percent of Republicans and 64 percent of Democrats—believe the environment will be in worse condition for the next generation. And 66 percent of all respondents agreed that the United States needs to join an international treaty to reduce emissions. There was a split over partisan lines, with 42 percent of Republicans and 86 percent of Democrats voicing support for a treaty.
The public support for an international response to climate change comes as world leaders meet to forge a new pact that would include almost every country in the world in an effort to curb carbon emissions. Besides Obama, leaders representing the world’s top carbon emitters, including Chinese President Xi Jinping, Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin, attended the opening session Monday night.
The CBS/New York Times poll, which was conducted over Nov. 18-22, found that half of all respondents believed global warming is having an impact now. Of Republicans, 58 percent said they think the phenomenon will cause a serious impact now or in the future. Only 9 percent of total respondents said climate change does not exist.
