Climate change ambition on the rise

The University of Ottawa’s Positive Energy program uses the convening power of the university to bring together academic researchers and senior decision-makers from industry, government, Indigenous communities, local communities and environmental organizations to determine how to strengthen public confidence in energy decision-making.

Mockup of the report.

The survey

New survey results (PDF, 2.3MB) from Positive Energy and Nanos Research examine how and why Canadian views towards acting on climate change are evolving over the course of the COVID-19 pandemic. The survey offers updates on questions that Nanos and Positive Energy asked earlier during the pandemic, and some as early as 2015. It also found a gap in Canadians' perceptions of the importance of oil and gas to Canada's current economy and Canada's future economy. 

The survey was an RDD dual frame hybrid telephone and online random survey, November 26th to 29th, 2020, n=1096, accurate 3.0 percentage points plus or minus, 19 times out of 20.

The analysis

Canadians were asked on a scale of 0 to 10, where 0 means absolutely the worst time and 10 absolutely the best time, how good a time is it for Canada to be ambitious in addressing climate change even if there are costs to the economy. They were also asked to specify why they believe so. A majority of Canadians believe that now is a good time to be ambitious. However, opinion on the issue remains somewhat polarized, with 38% Canadians answering either 0 or 10 relative to 33% in July. Responses are broken out by region, age, gender and self-identified ideological orientation.

Media coverage