About 50% of the world’s population – literally billions of people – are voting in 2024, with potentially cataclysmic consequences environmentally, socially and economically.
As the AP reported, “There are more than 50 elections affecting half the planet’s population planned for this year. From Taiwan to Russia to India and more, the presidential and legislative contests have huge implications for human rights, the economy, international relations and prospects for peace in volatile times.”
These election results will ripple across the planet, literally, with huge repercussions for women’s rights, the climate, war and peace from Ukraine to Israel/Gaza to Taiwan, and every economy in the world.
The snap election in France that President Macron called is happening today, and could put much more power in the hands of the far-right party, threatening many if not all of Macron’s climate and economic initiatives. Elections in Mexico, Iceland, India, Indonesia, Russia (if you can call it an “election”), Bangladesh, and many others have already been held, some with surprising results.
The world is holding its collective breath for the U.S. election on November 4th and its potentially seismic impact, not only in the U.S. but across the world.
80% of Voters Want More Government Action on Climate
A massive new United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) study about climate change, called the Peoples’ Climate Vote 2024, surveyed over 75,000 people across 77 countries and found that 80% of people want more government action on climate change. UNDP said it was conducted with the University of Oxford in the UK and GeoPoll.
One of the biggest impacts of the U.S. election that would be felt in every community would be on President Biden’s signature Inflation Reduction Act, Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act and CHIPS and Science Act. Together they are pumping nearly $3 trillion – and catalyzing trillions more in private capital – to accelerate the transition to a clean energy, climate resilient economy that creates thousands of good paying jobs across the nation while staving off the worst effects of a warming planet.
Billions of dollars from these bills are flowing to Republican districts, creating tens of thousands of jobs, and many Republican lawmakers are showing up for ribbon cuttings (including those who voted against them). Even Republican Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell showed up at at least one announcement, as President Biden noted in his State of the Union speech a few months ago.
The UNDP study also found that 86 percent of voters around the world “want to see their countries set aside geopolitical differences and work together on climate change. The scale of consensus is especially striking in the current global context of increased conflict and the rise of nationalism.”
Women voters in particular want more climate action – and will decide the U.S. election
Women are the largest voting bloc in the U.S. and “will decide the presidency,” because they are 53% of the U.S. electorate and “women now register and turn out in higher numbers than their male counterparts,” renowned veteran pollster Celinda Lake, Founder and President of Lake Research Partners, told me recently on Electric Ladies Podcast. She said climate change is one of the top five issues for women voters in the U.S.
Women voters in the five big emitters – Australia, Canada, France, Germany and the United States – “were more in favour of strengthening their country’s commitments by 10 to 17 percentage points,” according to the People’s Climate Vote, too.
“Women are very worried about these (climate) events, and they’re the ones that really worry about the impact on communities. They worry that whether you’re talking about a Kentucky or a Maui, these communities have not recovered,” Lake said. “They like the compassionate president. They like someone who’s in tune. They want to leave a better country for their children,” adding that, “women have been very influenced by their children and their grandchildren. They will say that climate change is something that really is on my agenda more because my children talk to me about it and they listen to their children and grandchildren.”
A recent study by George Mason University’s Center for Climate Change Communication and the Yale Program for Climate Change Communication aligns with these too, finding that 64% of registered women voters in the U.S. prefer candidates that support action on global warming. A majority of men do too, 58%. The GMU-Yale study emphasized that 40% of registered women voters said a candidate’s position on global warming will be “‘very important’’ in their choice for president.
Reaching people not usually polled
The Global Director of Climate Change at the UNDP, Cassie Flynn, is quoted in their press release saying the People’s Climate Vote reached people who are not usually surveyed, too.
“The Peoples’ Climate Vote has enlisted the voices of people everywhere – including amongst groups traditionally the most difficult to poll,” she said, “For example, people in nine of the 77 countries surveyed had never before been polled on climate change.”
This mass of elections in 2024 of over half the world’s population has the potential to either accelerate addressing global warming, or to severely impair it, resulting in potentially even more devastating consequences to our communities. Mother Nature is not waiting to see who wins.
“The next two years stand as one of the best chances we have as the international community to ensure that warming stays under 1.5°,” Flynn emphasized.
We’ll see how these billions of people around the world vote.
Buckle up. And vote.
Listen to the full interview with Celinda Lake on Electric Ladies Podcast here.
