Most Americans support government action on climate change, but a growing minority fear it could harm the economy, according to survey data from Stanford University and Resources for the Future, which has been conducting annual surveys of Americans’ attitudes toward climate action since 1997.

According to this year’s survey, 36 percent of respondents said climate action would hurt the economy, up from just 29 percent four years ago. The increase may be related to an overall increase in Americans’ concerns about the economy, says Jon Krosnick, lead author and professor of communications and political science at Stanford University.

“Between our 2020 and 2024 survey, there was a lot of COVID and economic disruption,” he said.

Plus, there’s a pretty good test case for how fighting climate change actually impacts the economy during this period. The Inflation Reduction Act, passed in 2022, invests hundreds of billions of dollars in climate-friendly technologies.

And that has led to announcements for dozens of new factories to make batteries, solar panels and more, notes Leah Stokes, Anton Vonk Associate Professor of Environmental Policy at UC Santa Barbara.

“We’re talking about over 300,000 new jobs,” she said. “We’re actually seeing a renaissance of manufacturing in the United States because of climate action.”

The transition to renewable energy could hurt employment in the fossil fuel sector. But Stokes said the bill provides incentives for companies to create new jobs in those communities: “Basically, you get extra money if you build a wind or solar project in a place that used to employ a lot of workers in the fossil fuel industry.”

And as storms become more destructive, the benefits of climate action outweigh the costs, Stokes said.