Australian workers overwhelmingly believe the country’s largest companies have a responsibility to tackle climate change, but a national survey has found widespread scepticism that businesses are making meaningful progress.
The research, by the Curtin Centre for Applied Ethics, surveyed 2,048 workers and found employees were prepared to support corporate climate action, provided companies could produce evidence to support their claims.
Professor Anthony Langlois, the centre’s director, said climate change had become a workplace health, safety and productivity issue, with its effects concentrated among people in frontline roles.
Among technicians, trades workers and machinery operators, 59% said they had worked in extreme temperatures, while 45% had worked in places affected by smoke, fumes or dust. The corresponding figures for managers and professionals were 25% and 20%.
Frontline workers were also among the most disillusioned with the wider political and social response. Some 58% said they were dissatisfied with the federal government’s handling of climate change, while the same proportion felt they had no meaningful say in the political system.
That figure rose to 60% among workers exposed to smoke, fumes or dust, according to the report, which is the first in a series examining the challenges facing businesses during what its authors describe as a global “polycrisis”.
Workers demand evidence over climate claims
The survey found that employees viewed the cost of living as the area most likely to be affected by climate change, with 41% describing it as a “major impact”.
“Employees encounter climate change first as an affordability and security question, not an abstract environmental one,” the report said.
Professor Langlois said transparency would be critical if companies wanted to win the confidence of their workforces, particularly in Western Australia’s energy and mining industries.
“People want change, and they’re entirely happy to be persuaded that companies are doing things and that the government is doing things, they just want to see the evidence,” he said.
He said mandatory climate reporting requirements could give businesses an opportunity to demonstrate progress, but urged them to involve employees throughout their organisations rather than focusing only on boards and investors.
“Don’t rely on a PR campaign, use the evidence and that will persuade people,” Professor Langlois said.
Co-author Professor Astghik Mavisakalyan said 79% of those surveyed believed greenwashing was common. Employees were more likely to trust climate claims that had been independently audited or were supported by mandatory disclosure rules than statements based solely on companies’ own reporting.
The report also identified a growing political divide over climate change. The gap between left-leaning and right-leaning Australians widened from 32 percentage points in 2010 to 48 points in 2025, with perceptions of the threat shifting sharply among left and centre-leaning groups while changing little on the right.
