Houston Daily

Most residents in the Houston area believe climate change is real and support practical policies to address it, according to a new report from the University of Houston’s Hobby School of Public Affairs.

The findings come from the second wave of the Survey on Public Attitudes and Community Engagement City Panel (SPACE City Panel), a long-term study by the Center for Public Policy. The survey tracks opinions of about 5,000 residents across nine counties in Greater Houston.

Nearly 87% of respondents acknowledged that climate change is happening, while only 3.7% denied its existence and 9.5% said they were unsure or lacked enough information. However, opinions about the causes of climate change differ along political lines. Almost half of Democratic respondents (48.4%) said human activities are mostly responsible for climate change, compared to only 13.3% of Republicans, who largely attributed it to natural changes in the environment.

Maria P. Perez Arguelles, lead researcher on the report and research assistant professor at the Hobby School, noted that this partisan divide reflects recent policy decisions in Texas: “Lawmakers passed more bills that were aimed at strengthening the power grid or expanding the reliability of energy supply,” Perez Arguelles said. “But other bills targeting renewable energy development and those that targeted wind and solar installations, for example, didn’t pass.”

The survey also found that most respondents favor efficiency-based solutions over technical ones like carbon capture. Policies promoting improved energy use in homes, vehicles, and factories received more support than those focused on carbon capture technology.

“What these results suggest is that those policies that promote efficiency and visible community benefits — so things that people can visualize and see translated into everyday lives — have a higher chance of gaining bipartisan support in the Greater Houston area,” Perez Arguelles said.

Support for expanding urban green spaces was strong among respondents as well; about 68% viewed such initiatives as beneficial both for climate resilience and community well-being.

Additional findings showed that while just over a quarter (25.2%) believe climate change harms them personally “a great deal,” nearly 59% think future generations will be harmed by its effects. Respondents identified the oil and gas industry (57.7%) and governments of developed countries (51.1%) as top entities “very responsible” for causing climate change.

The full report can be accessed on the Hobby School website. The survey was conducted between August 11 and September 4.

A previous installment in this series examined labor market issues, while an upcoming report will focus on household finances.