The Greta Thunberg Effect on Climate Equity: A Worldwide Google Trend Analysis

Abstract

Public opinion can strongly affect public policy when it focuses on issues of particular importance. In the midst of a current climate crisis, influencing public opinion can be one path to push the adoption of climate policy. Here, the impact of major media events on the public interest/concern for climate change was analyzed. Google Trends has emerged as a valid proxy for evaluating change in the space of public attention, but it only becomes usable after the back-transformation in absolute frequencies proposed here. In 2019, due to the “Greta Thunberg effect”, the duty-bearers, for the first time, showed greater concern than the rights-holder countries, breaking the paradigm that the more vulnerable countries are more worried about climate change. High public demand was created for strong climate policies and other future public actions that must be implemented to avert the current climate crisis.