10 years after the signing of the Paris Agreement, the emphasis for climate action is shifting from planning to implementation. The incoming COP30 Presidency has launched an innovative experiment to mobilise climate action globally, based on self-organised initiatives around the world. This “Global Mutirão” aims to build momentum and “create the conditions for an inflection point in our climate fight”.

At its core lies the idea of a community coming together to work on a shared task, whether harvesting, building or supporting one another. It is a powerful reminder that reaching net-zero greenhouse gas emissions will require the active engagement of people in all countries. Fairness, which science shows is an important factor in people’s decision-making process, lays the foundation for this engagement.

This is a central message of the OECD report Fast-tracking Net Zero by Building Climate and Economic Resilience: climate action by governments can only be effective if it is fair, addresses citizens’ needs and is built on active engagement. 

Concerns over fairness in how costs and benefits are shared (or distributional outcomes in technical terms) have often held back progress on climate action. The economic case for tackling climate change is clear. OECD-UNDP projections show that ambitious climate policy can enhance growth and lift millions of people out of poverty. By 2100, the climate damages avoided by ambitious action could prevent significant economic losses and increase global GDP by up to 13%. However, these benefits are often long-term and diffuse, and at the same time, many people face other, more immediate worries. Concerns around job losses, higher energy prices and the cost of adopting new technologies and behaviours tend to influence people’s attitudes to climate action.

Broadly speaking we know how to design policy packages that both reduce emissions and address negative distributional impacts. Active labour market policies, such as job search assistance, training programmes and employment incentives provided by public employment services (PES)  can help workers move to jobs in new industries – including those experiencing growth due to the transition – and public investment can revive ailing regions. Better targeted subsidies can help low-income families cope with higher costs from carbon taxes . Global co-operation can help emerging market and developing economies prosper in the transition to net zero. 

So why are we not seeing more progress on climate? One key factor may be mistrust in governments and climate policy making.

While concern about climate change remained high across the OECD in 2024, many people do not trust in their government’s ability to effectively reduce emissions (Figure). This is driven by a belief that governments favour private sector interests over the public good, and the needs of current generations over those of the future. Only 30% of people feel that their political system gives them a voice, and less than half feel that communication around policies is adequate, especially regarding how policies will affect them.

The information ecosystem is rife with mis- and dis-information and the plethora of voices and perspectives available are increasingly hard to navigate. As such, it is perhaps not surprising that people’s perceptions of climate policies and how they work are not always accurate. For example, people’s understanding of carbon taxes can be misguided – evidence suggests citizens think of such taxes primarily as a way to increase government budgets to invest in climate action. This overlooks the considerable impact taxes have on behaviours and consumption patterns. Other more popular policy tools such as standards, bans or subsidies can also have similar regressive outcomes and, unlike carbon taxes, do not generate revenues that can be used to cushion negative impacts, but are nonetheless perceived as being fairer and less costly. These persistent misconceptions mean that, although we know how to design effective and fair policies, these are nonetheless perceived to be costly and overbearing and do not receive the public support governments need to effectively implement them. 

Citizens’ trust in government’s ability to reduce GHG emissions

Note: The figure presents within-country distributions of responses to the question “On a scale of 0 to 10, how confident are you that [country] will succeed in reducing greenhouse gas emissions in the next ten years?”. The “confident” proportion is the aggregation of responses from 6‑10 on the scale; “neutral” is equal to a response of 5; “not confident” is the aggregation of responses from 0-4; and “Don't know” was a separate answer choice. “OECD” presents the unweighted average of responses across countries. The data are based on the OECD Survey on Drivers of Trust in Public Institutions (Trust Survey), carried out in October and November 2023 in 30 OECD countries.

Source: OECD Survey on Drivers of Trust in Public Institutions – 2024 Results: Building Trust in a Complex Policy Environment.

These findings point to the crux of the climate policy problem – how do we make climate policy something that people trust and believe in?

The good news: by better engaging with people, trust in government and climate policies can be rebuilt. Almost 70% of people who feel they have a say in government decisions report moderate or high trust in government. Clear and responsive public communication and meaningful participation can bring people on board with climate action. Engaging people in policymaking can build trust and support by giving people ownership over policy outcomes. It can also increase policy effectiveness by incorporating personal experiences, concerns and interests, and tapping into people’s capacity to innovate and take action. 

For engagement to work, people need to feel like they have agency - the capacity to [positively] influence change both within their own lives and the world around them. Education plays a key role in empowering people to use their agency by equipping them with the foundational knowledge, skills and attitudes needed to understand the climate problem and recognise their role within it. This includes fostering an understanding of the relationships between environmental and social systems, building capacity for scientific and systems thinking and nurturing collective action. By embedding these competencies throughout curricula, qualifications and study programmes, and upskilling educators, education can not only build citizens’ agency but also provide them with the skills they need to thrive in a net-zero economy.

Bringing people on board with climate action is critical to a successful net-zero transition. Policy design can address the adverse outcomes of climate policies and ensure that everyone can benefit from the new opportunities offered by the climate transition. But without people’s trust, support and active engagement, climate action will continue to fall short. The OECD’s project on Building Climate, Economic and Social Resilience explores how enhancing the social inclusion and acceptability of the net-zero transition can effectively drive progress towards climate goals. Upcoming work will assess people’s perceptions and expectations of climate policies and how to deal with any adverse impacts. It will also assess the employment and skills implications of climate policies and analyse the knowledge and skills of school students towards climate-related issues by piloting a PISA Climate Literacy Framework.

In the lead-up and during COP30, the OECD COP30 Virtual Pavilion will discuss a variety of these topics, including:

• Bridging barriers, building partnerships: Strengthening global co-operation for climate action, 3 November 2025 | 11:30 AM - 1:00 PM CET
• Competitiveness, cost of living and cutting emissions: Can policy do it all?, 13 November 2025 | 11:30 AM - 1:00 PM CET
• Unlocking community-based financing for clean energy and green small-scale enterprises in emerging markets, 14 November 2025 | 2:00 PM - 3:30 PM CET
• The green transition of SMEs in Latin America and the Caribbean, 19 November 2025 | 4:30 PM - 6:00 PM CET