BARELY one in four Coalition voters accepts climate change is mostly caused by humans, with more than half of Liberal voters believing changes to global temperatures are natural, according to a CSIRO survey.
The wide-ranging report, which summarised the findings of five surveys of Australian attitudes from 2010 to 2014 before the program was axed earlier this year, was released without fanfare on Tuesday.
As in previous years, just under 80 per cent of respondents accepted the climate was changing, with human activity viewed as accounting for 62 per cent of the change.
Assessments of the cause, though, appear closely tied to political leanings. Of 3789 respondents since the September 2013 election, 52 per cent of Liberal voters thought climate change was happening but it was natural, compared with 42 per cent of Nationals voters, 31 per cent of Labor and 17 per cent of Greens voters, the survey found.
By contrast, more than three-quarters of Greens voters said humans were mostly to blame for the warming planet as did 59 per cent of Labor voters.
The findings may be an indication of the challenge the Turnbull government faces convincing its supporters to ramp up action to tackle climate change. All the world's major science academies and some 97 per cent of published scientists accept climate change is caused by humans, and delegates from about 200 nations will meet later this month in Paris to hammer out a new global treaty to try to limit temperature increases.
Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull, unlike his predecessor Tony Abbott, has spoken out strongly in defence of science particularly as it relates to climate change, and is expected to re-state the case for action at the Paris climate summit starting at the end of the month.
Since grabbing the leadership in September, the Turnbull government has tried to distance itself from some of Mr Abbott's positions. The steps include appointing a pro-renewable energy advocate Alan Finkel as the next chief scientist and seeking the chairmanship of a United Nations Green Climate Fund that Mr Abbott derided as "a Bob Brown bank on an international scale".
Andy Pitman, Director of ARC Centre of Excellence for Climate System Science at the University of NSW, predicted that many Coalition voters will take their cue from the new PM and shift their views.
"To a substantial degree, when asked, a significant fraction of the public say what they think their preferred party says" on issues such as climate change, Professor Pitman said.
"My experience of the public service and right the way through to some media outlets, they absolutely listen to the vibe from the top and respond to it," he said.
The CSIRO survey found some confusion among respondents. For instance, even those who thought global warming was not happening still attributed just over a third of climate change to human activity.
Those who thought there was no climate change counted friends and family as their most trusted source of information on the issue. University scientists were the most trusted source of respondents saying humans are to blame for global warming.
"Politicians were also rarely nominated as a basis for opinions, despite the strong associations that opinions had with voting behaviour," the report noted. "This aligns with recent research suggesting politicians and political parties might be more influential than [people] think."
While many respondents accepted that people in developing countries would be among those hardest hit by extreme weather and other climate-related changes, support for increased aid to help them cope gained little backing from respondents. Increased government spending on renewable investment won the most support.
Greens Senator Larissa Waters called for the study to be revived.
"It's incredibly disappointing that funding for CSIRO to keep carrying out this valuable study in the future has been axed," Senator Waters said.
"While the Australian public trusts scientists on climate change the most, and mining companies the least, the Turnbull government seems to have it the other way around," she said.
Labor's climate spokesman Mark Butler said people "fundamentally" believe that climate change is real and a significant proportion believe it is linked to human activity.
"They also believe that big-polluting countries, multinational corporations, and wealthy countries are the most responsible for causing climate change," he said.
"[W]hat exactly is Malcolm Turnbull doing to make amends for the unconscionable behaviour of Tony Abbott over the past two years?" Mr Butler said. "Oh that's right, nothing."
The office of the new science minister Christopher Pyne referred questions on the study to the CSIRO.
Environment Minister Greg Hunt, meanwhile, has been touting Australia's commitment to renewable energy at a conference in Shanghai.
"Between 2010 and 2022, just under one third of Australia's emissions-intensive electricity capacity has or is projected to retire," Mr Hunt told the conference on Tuesday. "Between 2014 and 2020, large-scale renewable electricity generation under the Renewable Energy Target is expected to almost double."
