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The City of Edmonton released the results from its third annual Climate and Energy Perceptions Survey on Thursday and the poll suggests 75 per cent of the more than 1,000 citizens who took part believe “there is a need to act now” to address the issue of climate change.

The survey also found that 74 per cent of respondents are concerned about climate change and 69 per cent believe climate change is “mostly caused by human activities.”

Sixty-eight per cent of respondents agreed that “investing in energy efficiency and transitioning to renewable energy sources provides job opportunities for the city.”

READ MORE: Is the Liberal climate plan achievable?

“These surveys help us understand how local perceptions around climate and greenhouse gas emissions are shifting over time, ” Mike Mellross, the City of Edmonton’s general supervisor of energy transition and utility supply, said in a news release.

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“Year-over-year we are seeing that Edmontonians are growing more concerned about climate change and how it will affect their lives and the economy.

“The results show residents want accelerated, decisive action on climate change and want the city to do more to limit emissions and prepare for the impacts of a changing climate.” Tweet This

READ MORE: ‘Catastrophic’: Canada set to miss 2030 emissions target by 15%, UN report says

The city noted that the survey found more respondents said Edmontonians should be doing more to help prevent climate change and that more agreed they want to do more personally to help prevent climate change, up 10 percentage points and nine percentage points, respectively, over the last two years.

The survey was conducted just weeks after Edmonton city council officially declared a climate emergency in August.

READ MORE: City of Edmonton declares climate emergency

1:51 Edmonton city council declares climate emergency Edmonton city council declares climate emergency

At the time, council also passed a resolution to plan to respond to climate change with a revised Community Energy Transition Strategy.

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“This is a response to science first and foremost,” Mayor Don Iveson said at the time. “I think the fact we are a resource-producing and energy-producing region equips us to be energy problem solvers.”

Last month, thousands of people joined Greta Thunberg, a teenage environmental activist from Sweden, for a rally at the Alberta legislature to demand action on climate change.

READ MORE: Thousands rally with Greta Thunberg at Alberta legislature for climate strike amid counter-rally

11:03 Swedish climate activist speaks at Edmonton rally: ‘We need to start treating this crisis as a crisis’ Swedish climate activist speaks at Edmonton rally: ‘We need to start treating this crisis as a crisis’

METHODOLOGY: The online survey, conducted between Sept. 13 and Sept. 23, used a general population online panel provided by Dynata. Data was statistically weighted by age, gender and region (quadrants) using 2016 Census data to reflect the city’s population along those demographics. The city said because this was a general population non-probability panel survey, “to report a margin of error is inappropriate.” However, the city said if this were a probability sample, the margin of error would be +/- 3.1 percentage points, 19 times out of 20, based on this sample size.

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