A Public Mandate for Climate Ambition: Ukraine and the World / 86% and Unheard: Public Demand for Climate Action in Ukraine and Beyond

As the world faces overlapping crises (climate disruption, war, energy shocks and the erosion of trust in information), climate policy is increasingly shaped by who is heard rather than who is in the majority. Peer-reviewed research shows that 80–89% of the world’s people want their governments to take stronger climate action, yet most of them believe they are a minority. Social and news media reinforce this perception gap, keeping the majority silent and giving decision-makers a distorted picture of public will. Closing that gap is not peripheral to climate ambition. It is its foundation.

In Ukraine, where the war has targeted energy infrastructure, cities and land, 86% of people still want stronger climate action. That support is a mandate for a reconstruction built on clean, decentralised and secure energy. It also shows that public demand for climate action is not a luxury of peaceful times. In an information space under constant attack, accurate reporting on what citizens actually think is itself an act of resilience.