People across the G20 want their economies transformed, but they no longer trust their governments to achieve this change.
This finding is at the heart of the Earth for All Survey 2026, Rebuild trust: Rigged economies, fractured societies and the case for change. This new report, focused on social tension and social cohesion, is based on a survey conducted in 17 countries by Ipsos on behalf of Earth4All. It finds societies that are remarkably united in their diagnosis of what is wrong with the economy, but that feel themselves more divided than ever, and with collapsing trust in those in power to fix it.
Seven in ten respondents (70%) say there is too much economic inequality in their country. Nearly two-thirds (65%) believe the system is rigged to benefit the rich and powerful, and 69% want major changes to the economic system, against just 8% who disagree.
Yet while the mandate for change is overwhelming, the trust in governments to deliver it has deteriorated, only 31% believe their government will make decisions that benefit the majority of people twenty or thirty years from now, compared with 39% in 2024.
That collapse runs through the wider social fabric. Two-thirds of respondents (67%) say their country is more divided than a decade ago, citing serious tension between supporters of different political parties (71%), between people on high and low incomes (63%), between immigrants and the native-born (62%), and between the climate-concerned and the sceptical (53%).
The report’s co-author Kate Pickett, Professor for the Public Understanding of Social Sciences at the University of York, member of the Club of Rome and co-author of The Spirit Level, said: "People right across the income spectrum, in country after country, have arrived at the same diagnosis: that the system is rigged and that inequality has gone too far. The collapse in trust is deeply concerning: when people stop believing that their government will act in their interest long-term, it's corrosive to the sense of shared future that healthy societies depend on."
Support for democracy itself remains strong in principle — 68% say it is the best way to govern their country — but it is increasingly contested in practice. 40% say their country would be better off with a strong leader unconstrained by parliament and elections, a figure that rises above half in several upper-middle-income countries.
This survey is the third in a series of surveys conducted by Earth4All since 2021 into changing public attitudes to social and political system change. Owen Gaffney, the report’s co-author and narrative chair of Earth4All, said: “This survey captures a gap that Earth4All has been tracking for several years now. The public wants systemic economic change, yet mainstream politics is consistently failing to offer it. When this gap is left unaddressed, it gets filled by whoever is willing to promise radical change first, democratic safeguards or not. The opportunity here is for a new kind of social contract, one that takes seriously the scale of change people are asking for and offers it through fair and democratic means."
Methodology
The survey was conducted by Ipsos across G20 countries plus Sweden. China and Saudi Arabia were excluded owing to sensitivities around questions of a political nature; Russia was excluded because of the war in Ukraine. The 17 countries surveyed together account for 58% of global GDP, 38% of the world's population and 37% of global CO₂ emissions from fossil fuels and industry.
About Earth4All
Earth4All is an international initiative to accelerate the systems changes we need for an equitable future on a finite planet. Combining the best available science with new economic thinking, Earth4All was designed to identify the transformations we need to create prosperity for all. Earth4All was initiated by the Club of Rome , the Potsdam Institute for Climate Impact Research , the Stockholm Resilience Centre and the Norwegian Business School . It builds on the legacies of The Limits to Growth and the planetary boundaries frameworks.
Earth4All is committed to advancing systems change and the transition to a new climate and economic paradigm through three interconnected pillars. These pillars reflect the overarching framework of our substantive work and core objectives, namely to:
Earth4All advocates for five key turnarounds to achieve wellbeing for all within planetary boundaries: