Climate change denying MPs out of step with voters

That question, which is likely to have a significant impact on the Coalition's fortunes at the next election, appears to have been definitively answered.

An Australian Conservation Foundation survey conducted by YouGov has revealed strong support for more government action on reducing greenhouse gas emissions in all of Australia's 151 federal electorates, including the 16 held by the Nationals.

YouGov matches survey responses with census data on population density, household income, education levels and the like to carry out complex modelling on how issues are likely to play out in specific parts of the country.

It found that a clear majority of voters in every Nationals electorate said climate change action would be either the "most important" issue or "an important issue" in determining their vote at the next election.

The majority of voters in those seats also wanted the government "to do much more" or "to do more" to combat climate change.

Those findings must surely come as a wake-up call to Deputy Prime Minister Barnaby Joyce, who famously asked "Where's the plan?" when questioned about his views on climate change after rolling former leader Michael McCormack.

A majority of MPs in the Nationals party room backed Mr Joyce following concerns Mr McCormack was too closely aligned with the Prime Minister's slow push to move the Coalition to a target of zero emissions by 2050.

The survey results come in the wake of damning reports which indicate climate change is occurring even more radically than the scientific community had predicted, and that the speed of action by nations around the world - including Australia - needs to accelerate.

The most recent UN Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change report warned that without "immediate, rapid, and large-scale cuts to record-high levels of greenhouse gas emissions" then hopes of containing global warming to even 2 degrees would be "beyond reach".

It cited longer heatwaves, more frequent droughts, other extreme weather events such as flooding, and an increase in the number and violence of hurricanes and cyclones, as the inevitable consequences of failing to keep global temperatures below the Paris Agreement targets.

These phenomena are already occurring, with heatwaves, flooding, wildfires and hurricanes - the most recent in Louisiana this week - all making headlines across the northern hemisphere this year.

Most commentators believe Australia's disastrous "Black Summer" bushfires in 2020-21 marked a major turning point in local attitudes towards global warming and carbon emissions. Their impact, like that of the drought that had preceded them, was most widely felt across regional Australia.

While the YouGov survey results may come as a surprise to Mr Joyce and the other climate change recalcitrants in the government, they were actually highly predictable. Regional Australians are much more profoundly affected by changes in weather patterns and to the natural environment than their city cousins.

They have an even greater stake in this issue than most of us.

If the conservatives don't get up to speed on fighting climate change, they run the risk their supporters will switch their votes to alternative candidates who will.

Our journalists work hard to provide local, up-to-date news to the community. This is how you can continue to access our trusted content: