Over 90% of UK Jews accept that climate change is real - The Jewish Chronicle

More than nine out of 10 British Jews accept that climate change is definitely or probably happening, with close to two-thirds attributing it mainly to human activity, in the first survey of its kind.

The evidence published this week by the Institute for Jewish Policy Research ahead of COP26, the UN climate change summit being held in Glasgow from Sunday, suggests that British Jews are more sympathetic to the science surrounding the issue than the UK population as a whole.

But it also uncovered wide political and religious variations within the Jewish community, with fewer than half of Conservative Party supporters fully convinced about climate change and only a quarter of the strictly Orthodox.

Overall, 69 per cent of Jews accept the reality of climate change and a further 23 per cent think it probable, with only four per cent who deny it or are sceptical.

Sixty-three per cent put it “mainly” or “entirely” down to human causes; 23 per cent think human activity and nature equally responsible; and just seven per cent believe it a purely natural phenomenon. More than three-quarters – 77 per cent – are worried to some degree, with 17 per cent “extremely” and 23 per cent “very” worried.

Compared to the two-thirds of UK Jews who think human activity is predominantly to blame for climate change — 66 per cent, excluding the small percentage who did not know or respond to the question — the general UK figure was 54 per cent, according to a survey from the Department for Business, Enterprise and Industrial Strategy.

“Jews in the UK appear to be more sympathetic and climate-aware than the UK population as a whole,” say the authors of the JPR report. They suggest this is because of the high level of university education within the Jewish community.

The findings were based on a sample of 4,152 Jews this summer.

“Overall, Jews with higher levels of education are more aware, less sceptical and more worried about climate change than those with lower levels,” the report says.

Left-leaning voters are more likely to think that human activity is altering the planet than those on the right, while non-Orthodox Jews more than Orthodox ones.

Forty-six per cent of Jews who support the Conservative Party accept that the climate is “definitely” changing and only 36 per cent think this mostly down to humans.

In contrast, the comparative figures for Green supporters are 99 per cent and 98 per cent; Labour 93 per cent and 92 per cent; and Liberal Democrats 84 per cent and 82 per cent.

There are striking differences among the religiously affiliated. Eighty nine per cent of Liberal Jews say the climate is “definitely” changing and 80 per cent that this is mainly or entirely due to human activity.

For the Reform, the response was 85 per cent and 76 per cent; Masorti, 88 per cent and 82 per cent; the unaffiliated, 80 per cent and 75 per cent; Spanish and Portuguese, 66 per cent and 69 per cent; central Orthodox, 67 per cent and 58 per cent; and for the Strictly Orthodox, 25 per cent and 20 per cent.

“There are important questions to explore about how people’s Jewishness interacts with their views about climate change,” the JPR report states.