"Belief in human-driven climate change has remained fairly consistent over time — with a slight increase in belief among Republicans driven by Republicans under 45," according to a new report describing the results (PDF) of the 2026 AP-NORC/EPIC (the Energy Policy Institute at the University of Chicago) Energy Survey.
Asked "Do you think climate change is happening, do you think climate change is not happening, or aren't you sure" (emphasis in original), 74 percent of respondents said that climate change is happening, and 10 percent said that climate change is not happening, while 15 percent were not sure and 1 percent declined to answer.
Respondents who said that climate change is happening were then asked "Do you think climate change is caused entirely by human activities, caused mostly by human activities, caused about equally by human activities and natural changes in the environment, caused mostly by natural changes in the environment, or caused entirely by natural changes in the environment?"
54 percent of respondents said that climate change is caused entirely or mostly by human activities, 36 percent of respondents said that it is caused equally by human activities and natural changes in the environment, and 10 percent said that it is caused mostly or entirely by natural changes in the environment.
Political affiliation was correlated with views on human-driven climate change: while 68 percent of Democrats said that climate change is caused entirely or mostly by human activities, 46 percent of independents and 34 percent of Republicans agreed. But 40 percent of Republicans 45 and older agreed, while 30 percent of Republicans less than 45 agreed.
"Data were collected using both probability and non-probability sample sources. Interviews for this survey were conducted between July 6 [and] 24, 2026 with adults age 18 and older representing the 50 states and the District of Columbia. ... The overall margin of sampling error for the combined sample is +/- 2.2 percentage points at the 95 percent confidence level."
