Australian voters’ attitudes to climate action and their social-political determinants

regression with the 93+ age group excluded, yielding a slope of 0.3194, which over 5 years equals 1.597 (compared to 2.4145 with the age group included). The results outlined below note differences between the results when the 93+ were included versus excluded, when a dif- ference is evident. The results of our basic population ageing scenarios show that within the next decade, we can expect to see an increase from 52% in 2019 to 56% in 2029 of the Australian population who consider GHG emissions reduction ‘extremely important’ (regardless of which scenario is used). By 2049 this figure rises to 61–65% depending on scenario (Fig 9). Thus, the impact of ageing on aggregate attitudes would be around 4% per decade. Fig 8. The percent of each age bracket answering ‘extremely important’ to Q1. Solid line indicates linear model including the 93+ age group; dashed line indicates linear model with the 93+ age group excluded. Shading represents standard error of the linear models. https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0248268.g008 Fig 9. Basic populating ageing scenarios showing future share of Australian public opinion that climate action is ‘extremely important’. These basic scenarios consider influence from entry of younger and exit of older voters, with 2019 levels of public opinion projected onto future age distributions. Scenario 2 displays projections based on calculations including the 93+ age group (scenario 2 projections excluding the 93+ age group would fall between the two lines plotted in the figure). https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0248268.g009 PLOS ONE

Australian voters’ attitudes to climate action and their social-political determinants PLOS ONE | https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0248268 March 24, 2021 12 / 18