Climate change is becoming more of a major concern for millennial and Gen Z generations, new data reveals.
Deloitte’s 2024 Gen Z and Millennial Survey connected with 22,800 respondents across 44 countries who expressed their attitudes and opinions about issues important to them. According to the survey, which was conducted between November 2023 and March 2024, 59% of Millennials (individuals born between 1983 to 1994) and 62% of Gen Zs, (born between 1995 to 2005) reported feeling anxious or worried about climate change — an increase for both generations from last year.
These two generations also expect more involvement from the government and businesses to push and implement environmental sustainability. According to the survey, 79% of millennials and 77% of Gen Zs felt that the government should play a bigger role in pushing businesses to address climate change. And about half of Gen Zs (54%) and millennials (48%) reported that they and their colleagues were putting pressure on their employers to take action against climate change, a figure that has steadily increased since Deloitte’s 2022 report.
Several respondents were quoted throughout the survey, including a Gen Z woman from France who says that despite repeated warnings over the past 20 years, “nothing really moves” when it comes to fixing climate change.
“Governments give the impression of still having time even though the urgency is becoming more and more felt,” she added. “The measures taken are insufficient and the pressure from lobbyists is so strong that priority and truly impactful actions cannot be implemented.”
The survey also revealed that younger people are willing to switch jobs or change industries if they can’t drive environmental friendly changes in their organization. Two in 10 Gen Zs and nearly 2 in 5 of millennials reported changing jobs or industries due to their environmental concerns. And 71% of millennials along with 72% of Gen Zs reported a company’s environmental credentials being important when considering a potential employer.
Other issues of major concern for these two generations were the cost of living, followed by unemployment, mental health and personal safety/crime. Many respondents also expressed uncertainty regarding how artificial intelligence could potentially impact work and their careers.
Both Gen Z and millennials are “looking down the barrel of a gun” regarding what’s happening to the planet, according to Kathryn Alsegaf, Deloitte’s global chief sustainability officer. This could explain why climate change remains among their top three concerns, she says.
“People are experiencing it more,” Alsegaf says about younger generations’ exposure to climate change. “They’re wondering where is this going for them and how is it going to affect their lives?”
According to climate.gov, the U.S. hit a historic number of costly weather-related disasters and extremes in 2023: 28 storms occurred that year across the country, including Hawaii’s wildfire storm last August. These storms cost the country at least $92.9 billion in damages, with tropical cyclones causing the highest number of billion-dollar disasters. The data also shows that climate change is increasing the frequency and intensity of certain disasters, due to factors including longer seasons of wildfires in Western States and sea level rise.
While concerns about environmental sustainability drive career decisions and consumer behaviors in millennials and Gen Zs, whether those concerns can influence their vote in the upcoming presidential election, is “a tough question” to answer, according to Parrish Bergquist, an associate professor of political science at the University of Pennsylvania.
Bergquist says there is little data exploring whether climate change can motivate a voter to switch or vote for politicians based on candidates’ stance about climate change. Polls routinely indicate that climate change lags behind other issues, like the economy, when it comes to how people vote. However, the fact that people are becoming more interested in climate change, “could be really important for just mobilizing people and getting them out to the polls,” she says.
“Historically, we haven’t seen politicians be super concerned about people’s concerns about the environment,” Bergquist said, “specifically because it hasn’t been an issue where people have really faced retribution at the ballot box for taking votes that are sort of progressive — quote, unquote –on climate change.”
On the other hand, Bergquist says politicians have received heat for supporting policies that address climate change. One example she cites is the American Clean Energy and Security Act of 2009, which caused House members to face backlash from their districts due to the bill’s suggested cap-and-trade system on greenhouse gas emissions.
Similar to Alsegaf, Bergquist also says younger generations are seeing the impacts of climate change in real time and have to live with the burdens that come from it. This contrasts with older generations, since climate change “was communicated as a problem that was coming in the future, but that isn’t happening now,” she says. But while millennials and Gen Zs are becoming “more civically aware” of climate change, they seem not as influenced by opinions of politicians within the political parties they associate with, according to Bergquist.
She goes on to say that younger people whose families or themselves identify with the Republican Party are “seeing the impacts of climate change,” but are not as aware about the conflicting partisan signals coming down from party leaders, Bergquist said.
But who wins the Presidential election will clearly impact climate policy, Bergquist says, since the two political parties have very different stances about the issue. President Joe Biden has alienated some environmental advocates but has pledged to restore the country’s climate leadership, while former president Donald Trump has repeatedly called climate change a “hoax.”
When it comes to Deloitte’s survey, Alsegaf says she finds it hopeful that younger people feel “they have the power to change things.” “That’s one way they [younger people] can address the anxiety bug — by seeing themselves as part of the solution,” she said.
