Alone together: The hidden consensus on climate change

Global concerns about climate change are at record highs. But even when more people than ever see climate change as a threat to their nation, climate action is held back when people underestimate their fellow citizens' level of concern. 

In the first 2026 World Risk Poll report, we explore public perceptions of the threat of climate change - perceptions that are shaped by people’s lived experience of risk in their daily lives as much by scientific evidence. They are also influenced by how people believe others in their country perceive the threat, a second-order perception that has up until now been largely absent from international climate research. This new line of enquiry in the 2026 Poll, developed with the Human Development Report Office of the United Nations Development Programme, fills this data gap. Its presence in this edition addresses a question that may matter as much for the climate crisis as the state of public opinion itself.

We hope that this report, along with the data it presents, empowers policymakers, communicators, businesses, civil society organisations and researchers to shape and target the policies, interventions and public conversations that effective climate action requires. By identifying communities and contexts where action could matter most, we aim to provide a strong foundation for the collaborations in which meaningful change can be realised.