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In the run up to this year’s party conference, Reform party’s deputy leader, Richard Tice, urged investors to halt new offshore wind projects, despite news of a record high in green energy approvals. Labour condemned the move as “outrageous and unpatriotic,” warning it undermines investor confidence. But does Reform’s stance align with wider opinion?
Support for offshore wind remains very high in the UK – around three quarters of the public consistently have supported this form of renewable energy over recent years. Even Reform’s support is strong, with the majority of the party’s backers expressing a favourable view of offshore wind (60%). This support extends to other renewables infrastructure too – such as solar power (68%).
A majority of Reform backers also say they would support such new renewables in their own areas as well – 55% would support onshore wind farms, 58% solar energy parks, and 51% would support new pylons and power lines for carrying renewable energy. Part of the issue here is the ‘perception gap’ around renewables – while 3 in 5 Brits support local renewable energy infrastructure projects, neither MPs nor the public realise how strong that support is.
Kemi Badenoch doubled down on her party’s net zero rollbacks – pledging to get all oil and gas out of the North Sea, and remove net zero requirements on oil and gas companies drilling in the region – if elected. But is the Conservative leader’s stance at odds with wider public opinion?
Climate Barometer data shows that just 8% of Britons see oil and gas as one of the biggest growth sectors over the next five years – compared to 35% who say this about renewable energy and clean technology. This is consistent across UK regions, with only 10% of those in Scotland thinking of oil and gas as one of the top growth sectors in the near future, compared to 39% who say this about renewables.
But the Conservative leader’s position appears to not just be at odds with the wider public – Conservative voters themselves don’t show much faith in fossil fuels as a growing industry either. While there have been some recent shifts, only 14% of those who voted Conservative in 2024 think of the oil and gas sector as showing the biggest growth opportunity for the UK in the next five years. This is roughly half the amount of Conservative voters who say renewables and clean tech are the biggest growing sector (27%), and much less than the amount who think artificial intelligence will grow at pace (43%).
The majority of Britons (55%) think that the best way to ensure the UK’s energy security is to reduce the use of fossil fuels and expand use of renewable energy (such as wind and solar). In comparison, only 24% of the UK public think that increasing the supply of oil and gas by allowing new oil and gas exploration licences, as proposed by Kemi Badenoch on Monday, would be the best way to ensure the UK’s energy security.
Zack Polanski has won the Green Party’s leadership race, ushering in a new era for the party. Polanski won the leadership race by an emphatic margin – but will his unique brand of ‘eco populism’ cut through with voters?
Climate Barometer data shows reasonable agreement with the idea that the super rich are the most responsible for climate change. In April this year, we asked the public for views on the following statement: “Together, the richest 1% of people in the world emit twice as much carbon as the poorest 50% combined”. While over a third of Britons said they had not heard this narrative at all (36%) – interestingly, many had heard and agreed with it (39%) and very few disagreed with it overall (4%).
Across political divides, Green backers were the most likely to have heard and agree with the idea that the super rich are to blame (66%), and the narrative resonates with a majority of the Labour base too (56%).
There was even reasonable agreement amongst Reform backers, with a third of this group (30%) saying they had both heard and agree with it – while just a minority had heard and disagree with it (8%). It’s Conservative backers who appear to be more on the margins here, being the least likely to have heard and agree with the statement (28%).
Together this suggests that narratives which pin the blame on the super rich still have more traction to gain – but when the message does get picked up, it tends to land well across a wide political spectrum, perhaps only failing to resonate with Tory backers.
Two major trade unions, GMB and Prospect, have launched a new campaign ‘Climate Jobs UK’, warning that public support for the net zero transition could weaken without faster progress on ‘green’ job creation.
The unions, which represent tens of thousands of energy workers, say people need to see good jobs where they live or risk being drawn to parties that are opposing climate action.
New polling commissioned for the campaign shows that while most people back the energy transition, more than half (55%) want jobs and the economy prioritised over speed (17%). Only 30% believe the transition will improve UK job opportunities and fewer than 1 in 10 say they’ve seen green jobs in their area.
Expectations for positive impacts of net zero policies on job opportunities in local areas are in fact low. As recent Climate Barometer data shows, only 1 in 5 Brits anticipate net zero policies to have a positive impact on the local job market over the next five years, with the most common responses being ‘don’t know’ or net zero policies having ‘no impact’.
As this data shows, the British public doesn’t anticipate net zero policies to impact them negatively, but they also won’t go out of their way to defend something that feels abstract and irrelevant to their everyday lives.
Whilst younger age groups tend to think the impact of net zero policies on jobs will be more positive, these findings underline the importance of climate action being felt to tangibly improve people’s lives. This will require people seeing their neighbours, friends or family in good jobs that can provide some stability for the future — and which are, by default, ‘green’.
The link between climate impacts and net zero isn’t always easy to explain, but it matters. We need to cut emissions to limit the worst effects of climate change. But for many people, the link between net zero and real-world impacts like extreme heat or flooding can feel abstract or distant. So how can we make the link?
As part of his first annual climate statement to Parliament, Miliband warned that the climate crisis cannot be ignored. He called out politicians rejecting net zero as “betraying future generations” and said the shared commitment to tackling climate change “must not disappear by default”.
Climate action as a way of staying true to future generations echoes the public’s view on why tackling climate change matters. As Climate Barometer data shows, when asked what they thought were the most convincing arguments for pursuing net zero, Britons were most likely to select the idea that “We owe it to our children and grandchildren to take action to reduce our emissions now; otherwise it is they who will suffer the most” (35%).
This focus on protecting future generations also aligns with what makes climate change feel most urgent to people. New research shows that presenting climate impacts in binary terms is more effective in making it seem more real and imminent than showing average trend data. As extreme weather events gradually become more frequent and severe due to climate change, people tend to become accustomed to the new normal, also called the ‘boiling frog’ effect, and struggle to identify abnormal weather patterns over time.
Presenting climate change in binary terms helps to overcome that. In the study, people found a graph showing whether a fictional lake froze each winter more impactful than a chart of rising average temperatures in a fictional town. This research highlights how important it is to use clear before-and-after examples when talking about climate impacts.
Alongside message testing which suggests it’s helpful to frame climate impacts as “unnatural disasters” while making clear links to policies, these insights could help make climate communication resonate with the British public’s real and sustained concerns.
As the UK’s third summer heatwave drew to a close, Ed Miliband used his first annual climate statement to Parliament to warn of the growing impacts of climate breakdown in the UK, backed by the Met Office’s latest State of the UK Climate report.
The report shows how extreme weather is now the norm in the UK, with data from hundreds of weather stations revealing that the hottest days are becoming more frequent and severe, and intense rainfall has increased.
With roughly 360,000 heat pumps currently installed across the UK, the country remains a long way off the government’s target of installing 600,000 heat pumps every year by 2028, as laid out in the Energy Security Bill. But where do people currently stand on their journey toward using heat pumps? What barriers are holding back wider adoption, and how do these challenges vary across society? Most importantly, what can be done to overcome them?
Nesta’s new audience research helps to answer these questions by providing a segmentation of UK households based on demographic data, their housing situation and attitudes towards heat pumps. Ranging from “eco, high-earning Gen x-ers” — of whom 3% say they already have a heat pump — to “social tenants on tight budgets”, the report identifies the biggest heat pump enablers and barriers for each group to help them adopt the new technology.
And help is urgently needed: As Climate Barometer data shows, public knowledge of heat pumps remains limited, with only 37% of Britons knowing what a heat pump looks like, 22% saying they can describe how a heat pump works, and just 17% having heard mostly good things about them. Alongside this, 1 in 5 Britons have heard and agree with the statement that “heating technologies to replace gas boilers are untested and unreliable”, compared to only 1 in 10 who have heard the argument and disagree with it.
But for heat pumps to become a widely adopted source of heating over the next couple of decades in the UK, it will require more than fixing their image problems. Those who would already consider switching to a heat pump need to be supported to do so practically, and those who are currently unable to or hesitant about installing them need safe assurances that heat pumps will actually improve their comfort and help lower their energy bills over time.
More in Common’s new Shattered Britain report details climate opinion in the context of changing views across the nation.
The report shows that despite clear dividing lines in their broad worldviews, 6 out of 7 UK segments are ‘more worried than not’ about climate change – and believe the government is ‘not doing enough’ to tackle the crisis.
Whilst only 21% of the public opposed the 2050 net zero target, views on whether net zero Britain should be achieved by means of a strict target are far more varied, with only Progressive Activists clearly speaking out on its behalf. The piece also finds a decoupling of net zero and climate support across segments.
This echoes Climate Barometer data about government action on climate change, and the growing disconnect between net zero and climate opinion.
In this opinion piece for Climate Home News, Climate Barometer’s Niall McLoughlin highlights the urgent need for better communication around extreme heat.
Despite improvements to heat warnings, a disjointed landscape of heat communications means that many people feel the UK is poorly prepared for heat risks. Niall’s piece calls for improvements such as using social research to better tailor communication, focusing more on longer-term heat preparedness, and closing perception gaps which may lead people to underestimate risks.
He points also to locally-led tree planting projects as an example of the kind of long-term, community-based preparation needed. Research from Cardiff University has shown that such efforts must be accelerated significantly to help cities adapt to intensifying heatwaves. Their new findings reveal that urban tree planting can cut city temperatures by up to 5°C, making it one of the most effective tools for cooling overheated streets.
Two polls from YouGov show how positivity towards heatwaves shifts in response to heat episodes.
In the first poll, conducted on 18th June 2025, 41% said they were “hoping a heatwave “does happen” over the next few weeks, while 47% said they were “hoping it does not happen”
But just a few weeks later, after a second heatwave amist the UK’s warmest summer on record – these views changed.
On the 7th of July – in a repeat poll – just 37% said they were hoping a heatwave “does happen” over the next few weeks, while more than half overall (52%) said they were now “hoping it does not happen”.
Some of the clearest shifts in those “hoping it does not happen” occurred amongst Conservative supporters (+9%), the over 65s (+8%), and Londoners (+8%).
Climate change has doubled the number of ‘pregnancy heat-risk days’ in the UK, according to research by Climate Central and Round Our Way.
Extreme heat, driven by climate change, poses an escalating threat to pregnancy and maternal health around the world and in the UK. Heat poses a number of serious risks to both mothers and newborns before, during and after pregnancy.
The analysis shows that between 2020-2024 there was an average of 26 pregnancy heat-risk days in the UK each year. That means days hotter than 95% of all temperatures observed at a given location (compared against the 1991-2020 period).
Speaking on this issue – one mother, Amy Woolfson, who gave birth to her baby girl in London during amidst dangerous heat in September 2023, said:
“The thermometer that I had brought from home was recording 26.2°C by my bed at 4.28am. When the sun rose that morning, there was intense sunshine, with the windows on my side of the ward facing into the sun.
“Around 10am I took my newborn down to the ward lounge leaving a note on my bed saying I was trying to find somewhere to cool down. I said come and find me in the lounge and that I wanted to go home. I was very distressed.
“But by 12.45 the temperature had exceeded 29°C in the lounge and was 30.6°C by my bed at 1.35pm. This is completely at odds with official advice, including on hospital leaflets, that a safe sleeping temperature for babies is 16-20°C.
“I do not believe that my safety concerns were taken seriously.”
This story follows others by Round Our Way revealing how maternity wards are increasingly at risk from climate extremes, such as heat and floods.
A research paper – based on a nationally representative survey of 1750 UK residents in summer 2023 – finds several gaps and contradictions in heat perceptions. This includes:
Commentary & Analysis
15th May 2025
With new tracker data being launched, we show how the solid support for climate action has become disconnected from the ‘noise’ surrounding net zero.
A survey of 1,500 UK households carried out in 2023 has found that 19% of households reported using AC, compared with figures of around 3% in 2011 and approximately 5% of UK homes in 2018 reported in other sources. This suggests a substantial shift in domestic cooling practices over the past decade.
The timing of AC purchases was particularly interesting: 81% of AC users reported purchasing their AC between 2022 and 2023, while only 19% had purchased it before 2022. This suggests that the experience of recent extreme heat (such as the record breaking 40C heatwave of 2022) and overheating may be contributing to a rapid increase in demand for domestic cooling.
The findings point to a changing UK debate around domestic cooling, with households increasingly turning to mechanical cooling as they experience more frequent and severe heat. The authors note that:
“If summer warming trends continue, our survey suggests, AC adoption is likely to increase, placing both a significant burden on electricity grid peak demand, and leading to economic inequalities, particularly among lower socioeconomic groups.”
A climate of silence in the UK?
New analysis from Climate Barometer reveals more than half of Britons say they ‘rarely’ or ‘never’ share their opinions on climate change in everyday conversations.