Perception Gaps

Tracker data: Gap in perceived support for local wind and solar

05 October 2023

Climate Barometer Tracker data across three waves shows consistent public support for local renewable projects. The public are positive towards the prospect of new solar parks and onshore wind farms being built in their area, with greater than 70% support for both.

However, people – and their MPs – underestimate the actual public support for both initiatives, and overestimate opposition to them. This shows that MPs continue to misperceive public opinion in relation to renewable energy projects, and illustrates the stickiness of ‘not in my backyard‘ assumptions despite evidence to the contrary.

(Please note: the charts below have now been updated to include further waves of data, which show continued perception gaps after October 2023)

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The latest from the Perception Gaps timeline:

Climate Barometer Tracker 17th July 2025

Tracker data: MPs and the public continue to underestimate local backing for wind, solar and pylons

More than 3 in 5 Brits support local renewable energy infrastructure projects, but neither MPs nor the public realise how strong that support is, new Climate Barometer polling shows.

There is high in-principle support for a new onshore wind farm (69%), a new solar energy park (73%), and new pylons and power lines for carrying renewable energy (60%), even as those are proposed to be built in people’s local area.

Whilst support for these renewable energy infrastructure projects has remained largely stable since 2022/2023, perception gaps both from the public when it comes to other people in their area and MPs in terms of their constituents do not seem to have reduced over time.

Moreover, across each renewable project polled, MPs are even more likely to overestimate local opposition than the general public, suggesting that community views are not adequately represented in local discussions.

Climate Barometer Tracker 5th November 2024

Tracker data: The public and MPs underestimate support for net zero

Climate Barometer tracker data shows that net zero support is underestimated by, within and between the public and MPs.

The actual level of net zero support amongst the public was 65% from our polling in October 2024. But when we asked people to estimate this, most members of the public (70%) and half of MPs (49%) underestimated the levels of support for net zero amongst the public.

When it comes to opinion in parliament – actual support for net zero by 2050 was 90% amongst the MPs we polled in October. But this support was underestimated by 93% of the public, as well as by three-quarters of MPs themselves (75%).

Simply put, the 2050 net zero target is much more popular amongst the public and MPs than people think.

This follows previous tracker data showing evidence of underestimated support for net zero.

Climate Barometer Tracker 4th November 2024

Tracker data: Huge perception gap on support for onshore wind

Climate Barometer tracker data from October 2024 shows that there are clear misperceptions about support and opposition to local-level renewable energy.

There is a huge perception gap when it comes to onshore wind, for instance. In this wave of polling, 72% of the public told us they would support onshore wind being built in their local area. But only a quarter (25%) thought most people in their local community would support this.

When we asked MPs about this, just 19% thought more people would support than oppose onshore wind in their constituency, with 39% of MPs believing opposition would exceed support

Similar (although slightly less extreme) perception gaps are seen when we have asked the public and MPs about support for local solar parks, new pylons and power lines carrying renewable energy, and local renewables more widely.

View Perception Gaps timeline now