What Will It Take for People to Care About Climate Change? A Job.

[Durham, N.C.] According to a 2025 Pew Research Center report, adults rank the global economy amongst the top two major threats to their country. Climate change ranks #4. None of the surveyed nations designate climate change as the sole #1 threat. 

Economic concerns outweigh climate concerns, but the reality is that both are linked. The global economy could tank 50% well within Gen Z’s lifetimes, because of the climate crisis. The climate shock waves on the economy are here, so why are the adults not as concerned about climate change? 

The truth is: most of us do not think of the macroeconomic scale. We think of our individual self or at the micro level. We care about our own income and our own jobs. We need to make climate concerns more tangible to our realities. A proposed solution: to combat climate change with job incentives. 

The United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) reported in 2024 that nature-based solutions can draw up to 32 million new jobs by end of the decade. The report suggests that eco-friendly policies can both help the planet and boost the economy. 

North Carolina provides a great example of this movement. National Park tourism in North Carolina totals at a $4.1 billion cumulative benefit. This supports over 38,400 jobs in the state. The state previously pledged $421 million for climate conservation. The funding calls to restore 600 acres of coastal habitats, over 55,000 acres of forest, and 3,300 acres of state parks. The project is highly likely to employ North Carolinians to accomplish the restoration, thus increasing their employability. Local economies can be stimulated through ecological restoration. 

Nature service jobs are rapidly developing in Latin America as well. Payments for Ecosystem Services programs are a growing market opportunity for indigenous and local communities. The grants provide compensation for ecological stewardship of ancestral lands, allowing for greater economic participation. Many of these programs are guided by national and local frameworks, to voice proper compensation and participants’ land rights. 

Eco-economic benefits also expand into urban centers. City “green spaces,” or green infrastructure, may offer intersectional community benefits. As temperatures rise, it is crucial that we keep a safe working environment for outdoor workers. We can create a heat resilient city that addresses safer, cooler city environment. Heat-resilient cities are an experimental approach to urban planning, that prioritize cooling techniques for increasingly hot areas. 

Singapore is spearheading heat resilience, with greenery. With a downtown 10 degrees warmer than its suburbs, Singapore is under major threat of extreme heat. However, the country has adopted some mitigation strategies. Tree planting in parks and streets provides a natural cooling. Vertical greenery mitigates urban heating and shades buildings. Building plans have been precisely sized to maximize wind flow. 

Singapore is not alone in this problem. Over 70% of the world’s workforce is at high risk of extreme heat. Threats to exposed workers include heat stress that can lead to respiratory illness, dangerous physical and mental health impacts, and heat exhaustion. The United States is also not immune to the extreme heat risk. With heat resilient cities, the United States can help counter the 13 million jobs for outdoor workers and extreme heat-exposed employees that are vulnerable due to climate extremities. 

These extremities go beyond the heat. Climate impacts include worsening air quality, disease risk from increasing disease carrying vectors, and lasting psychological impacts related to severe weather. Tackling these extremities will be necessary to maintain our outdoor workforce and our outdoor job opportunities.  

The reality: the economy will not survive climate change. The catastrophic effects are not limited to one area, one state, or one government. Concerns over the global economy should coincide with climate considerations. Cooperative actions that invest in climate initiatives can be mutually beneficial to our economic livelihoods. Because when we support our environment, we support ourselves. 

With the climate crisis threatening to displace 1.2 billion people by 2050, we need to act fast. We need to act where people care. The UNEP nature-based job report provides insight for a hopeful environmental-conscientious decade. A decade that accounts for our current economic fears, while taking on the looming climate crisis. That includes investing in national parks, promoting jobs within conservation or sustainability, Payments for Ecosystem Services programs, and rebuilding urban areas that coexist with the environment. 

We can be on a positive path for climate solutions. We can make the global climate crisis a greater concern. We just need our government actors to provide their peoples with the right incentives to support our environment. Together, we can build a brighter future for our planet, our people, and our economy.