As a news service reported, there "is both growing public reluctance to make personal sacrifices and a distinct lack of enthusiasm for the major international efforts now underway to battle climate change, according to findings of a poll of 12,000 citizens in 11 countries...." A senior Earthwatch official stated that "There's consumer reluctance that's creeping in...."

In all the industrial countries surveyed, less than a third of the population was "personally making a significant effort to help reduce climate change through how I live my life today." Less than half of the residents of industrial counties were "prepared to make changes to my lifestyle to help reduce climate change" and significantly fewer people were willing to "spend extra money to help reduce climate change"

Of particular importance to officials in the incoming Administration considering new climate change initiatives, the NGO-HSBC report stated that "people believe governments are focusing too much attention on indirect actions that pass responsibility for climate change onto others, such as increasing taxes on fossil fuels, encouraging individual environmentally friendly activities and participating in international negotiations such as the Kyoto Protocol." Moreover, "Government involvement in carbon trading, in particular, is neither visible nor seen as a priority."

See news article

See Climate Confidence Monitor 2008