Denominational identification, church participation, and concern about climate change in Australia

Given increased attention to climate change in Australia’s churches, in this essay we examine the attitudes of Australian church attenders towards climate change using data from the 2006 National Church Life Survey (NCLS). The NCLS is a quantitative survey of approximately 300.000 church attenders, 10,000 clergy and 7,000 churches in more than 20 Australian denominations every census year since 1991, across a wide range of areas of religious faith, practice, and social concern. The largest project of its kind in the world, the NCLS is administered by NCLS Research, an ecumenical partnership. First, we provide some context concerning engagement with climate change within the Australian churches. Next, we summarise the body of survey research on Christianity and pro-environmental attitudes, and present our theoretical framework for the influence of congregational activity and denominational cultures on the climate change attitudes of church attenders. We then draw upon a representative sample of 3,400 church attenders to demonstrate a denominational pattern in attitude towards climate change that matches institutional engagement with climate change, though congregational environmental activity itself had little effect. Finally, following a discussion of the findings and limitations of the survey, we outline directions for future research using data from the 2011 NCLS.