It is clear that we are still far away from having a comprehensive idea about the attitudes, perceptions and concerns of people about climate change in Mexico.
Unlike other countries, Mexico has insufficient information about the perception, attitudes and knowledge its people have about climate change and global warming, and even less about the Paris Agreement.
The National Institute of Geography and Statistics (or INEGI), approaches this issue in its Home Survey about Science and Technology Perception, which takes place every two years and surveys one resident of every home older than 18 years old, living in urban centers with a population of more than 100,000 people. For the last survey, in 2015, the sample took up 3,200 homes from those urban areas, where they were asked about their level of comprehension about the terms “greenhouse effect” and “global warming”. As we see in the following table, most people consider their understanding of those terms as “regular” or “bad”:
Due to the general nature of this survey (perception of science and technology in Mexico), this is just a glimpse of climate change perception/knowledge in Mexico, since there isn’t any more climate change related information. Moreover, all the other studies available are either very localized—performed at a school, city or municipality—while those done at the national level have methodological issues that lead to a certain distrust of the data.
On a wider context, a poll carried out by GlobeScan in 2015 shows that 69% of the population in Mexico considers climate change as very serious. The results also show that only 31% of the public considered that Mexico should have played a leadership role during the COP-21 in Paris, in contrast with the 38% who said the same for the COP-15 in Copenhagen.
It is clear that we are still far away from having a comprehensive idea about the attitudes, perceptions and concerns of citizens about climate change in Mexico. The limited data that we have is also skewed towards the urban and adult. This risks ignoring other groups like rural populations that are mostly indigenous communities, as well as the knowledge and concerns of younger generations who have been more exposed to the issue of climate change.
Learn More
INEGI’s Home Survey about Science and Technology Perception, with methodology and results (in Spanish):
http://www.beta.inegi.org.mx/proyectos/enchogares/especiales/enpecyt/2015/default.html
INEGI’s Home Survey about Science and Technology Perception PDF template (in Spanish):
http://www.beta.inegi.org.mx/contenidos/proyectos/enchogares/especiales/enpecyt/2015/doc/enpecyt2015_cuest.pdf
GlobeScan’s press reléase:
https://www.globescan.com/news-and-analysis/press-releases/press-releases-2015/367-wealthy-countries-less-concerned-about-climate-change-global-poll.html