World Risk Poll 2026 launch: global attitudes to climate risk

As confirmed by the World Meteorological Organization, the past three years (2023-25) have been the warmest on record. As a result, severe weather events have continued to become ever more frequent and intense, with deadly and cascading consequences.

Since 2019, the Lloyd’s Register Foundation World Risk Poll has tracked people’s experience of, and worry about, these severe weather events, as well as public perception of the threat posed by climate change, in around 140 countries around the world.

The Poll data has consistently shown high levels of global concern about climate change across this period. And yet, at local, national and international levels, the world still struggles to stimulate the full level of action and investment needed to meet the challenge, with some nations even going backwards on their climate commitments. Why?

For the first time, the 2026 edition of the World Risk Poll has gone deeper, asking 140,000 people around the world not just how concerned they are about the threat of climate change to people in their country, but how concerned they believe their fellow citizens to be – data that has been collected to inform the 2026 Human Development Report from the United Nations Development Programme.

Framed by the Poll data, this event will explore whether people’s perceptions of other people’s views are out of step with reality – and if people believe their fellow citizens care less about the climate crisis than themselves, is this putting a crippling handbrake on whole-of-society climate action?

This event:

• Launched the 2026 World Risk Poll report on climate change, contextualised within broader global trends in safety and risk perception.
• Presented the latest data from the Poll and other sources on public experience and perception of safety risks associated with climate change.
• Explored the gap between personal perceptions of climate risk and perceptions of the beliefs of others, and discussed the implications this has for risk communication, policy, and efforts to drive effective, whole-of-society climate action.