New Climate Change Tracker shows employees increasingly anxious about future of planet

New statistics paint a grim picture of the perception on climate action, amid a new tool for executives to do more to develop their net zero strategies.

Alan Finkel: ‘This is the first data-led approach of its kind.’ Picture: Oscar Colman

Employees are increasingly anxious and frustrated about the current state of climate action, new statistics show, as two Australian bosses unite to launch a tool to help Fortune 500 companies develop their net zero strategies.

The chief executives of LiveTiles and My Net Zero are in New York this week to launch the Climate Engagement Tracker, a new index that they describe as a quantitative database to support the development of climate action road maps for employees and consumers.

So far 1500 employees have taken the survey, including workers from Fortune 500 companies in the technology, aviation, retail and banking sectors.

The index shows respondents are anxious (44 per cent), frustrated (43 per cent), and sad (36 per cent) about the current state of climate action, and only 22 per cent are optimistic about the future of the planet.

Some 82 per cent are concerned or extremely concerned about climate change, with 75 per cent feeling a personal responsibility to take some action and be a part of the solution, but worrying about how much it will cost (64 per cent).

When it comes to the role of corporations and specifically their employers, 70 per cent of respondents do not feel supported by their employer for personal climate action aspirations. Nearly two-thirds of respondents would think more positively of their employer if they were offered support, with the main requests being providing discounts or incentives from key service providers (62 per cent), supporting employee-driven actions (38 per cent), and providing information on how individual actions can have an impact (30 per cent).

Australia’s former chief scientist Alan Finkel said: “This is the first data-led approach of its kind.’’

“Recognising the importance of supporting and incentivising individual action, CEOs Karl Redenbach (LiveTiles) and Tim Hodgson (My Net Zero) are enabling the world’s largest organisations and governments to empower their people to individually play their part to help accelerate the world’s path to net zero … based on large-scale empirical data.”

Mr Hodgson said the data would inform better business decisions around environmental sustainability strategies.

“Our goal is to empower everyday people to take positive climate action, with tangible and targeted support from the organisations that surround them,” he said. “This new offering is the ideal starting point, allowing us to better understand where people sit on this issue right now. The data will provide the analysis required to build tailored and individual solutions to reach net zero, while feeding the Global Climate Engagement Index at a macro level.”

LiveTiles and My Net Zero will announcing the new offering on Monday during their jointly hosted Scope X Conference, which runs as part of New York Climate Week.

Originally published as New Climate Change Tracker shows employees increasingly anxious about future of planet