After a steady decline from August 2021 to November 2022, the proportion of Canadians who think it is the best time for Canada to be ambitious in addressing climate change even if there are costs to the economy is on the rise, with almost six in ten who say so (57%) (score of 7-10 out of 10) (48% in November 2022; 51% in May 2022; 54% in February 2022; 64% in August 2021).
Canadians most often rank affordability of energy (39%) first when asked to think about the energy needs of Canadians in the next five years. This was followed by lower greenhouse gas emissions of energy (31%) and reliability of energy (20%).
Canadians are over three times more likely to say governments in Canada do a very poor/poor job (46%) of ensuring energy is affordable as Canada works to meet its climate change targets rather than a very good/good job (13%). About one in three Canadians say governments do an average job (34%) at this.
Nanos conducted an RDD dual frame (land- and cell-lines) hybrid telephone and online random survey of 1,080 Canadians, 18 years of age or older, between April 30th and May 3rd, 2023 as part of an omnibus survey. The margin of error for a random survey of 1,080 Canadians is ±3.0 percentage points, 19 times out of 20.
The research was commissioned by the University of Ottawa’s Positive Energy program and was conducted by Nanos Research.
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