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People increasingly understand climate change as happening in the ‘here and now’. But there is a long way to go before the severity of climate risks is fully appreciated, and people are fully supported in preparing for and adapting to impacts.
Concern about the proximity of climate risks (in the ‘here and now’) has risen steadily among the British public, and a motivation to prevent climate impacts from worsening is a big part of overall public concern about climate change. In 2010, only 41% of people agreed ‘we are already feeling the effects of climate change’. By 2022, this figure had risen to 72%.
In our own Climate Barometer tracker data, and in wider message testing research, concern about worsening climate impacts is one of the most motivating arguments for pursuing net zero: worries about climate impacts are part of what makes the case for policies to cut carbon.
Indeed, for most non-specialists there is no meaningful distinction between climate impacts and adaptation on the one hand, and efforts to cut carbon in pursuit of net zero on the other. When asked directly, people are most likely to say mitigation and adaptation should both be prioritised.
But there are still differences in the ways people experience climate risks: ethnic minorities are likely to face heightened threats from climate impacts, while some of the most vulnerable people in society (e.g. older people) don’t always see themselves as being especially at risk from rising heat. Working-class communities may experience climate impacts through rises in food prices linked to adverse weather.
Climate Barometer tracker data (below) shows people still see themselves (and their local area) as less likely to be harmed by climate change in the next five years than ‘younger generations’ will be in the future.
Some parts of the British population – Loyal Nationals for example – are highly attuned to risks, and so are one of the most likely groups of people to notice and be concerned about climate threats. But there is still a long way to go before the severity of risks is fully appreciated, and people are fully supported in preparing for and adapting to climate impacts.
For instance, when it comes to a sense of personal risk and household preparedness, most people in the UK remain unaware of their own local flood risks, and don’t know what actions they need to take in the event of flooding.
The data is especially mismatched when it comes to the most vulnerable. UK citizens, including vulnerable groups (such as older people), tend to have positive associations with hot weather, and don’t feel they are personally at risk. And of the millions of households that are considered ‘at risk’ of flooding in the UK, less than 10% think they are at risk, while even fewer have plans for how to respond. Given that low-income households (who typically struggle to cover the financial burden of flooding) are at a disproportionate risk of flooding, these are troubling findings.
Shifting this situation is likely to mean realigning communications to better highlight the seriousness of the risks the country faces and to make connections more directly to people’s lived experiences.
When extreme weather is in the news (or being experienced first hand), climate change becomes more prominent in the public mind. But between bouts of extreme weather, maintaining that salience is easier said than done.
Following months of sweltering heatwaves, record-breaking wildfires and five regions in drought, this week it was provisionally confirmed that 2025 was the UK’s hottest summer on record.
While this new record was made ‘70 times’ more likely by climate change, the overwhelming sentiment is that the country is not prepared for more summers like this. The UK’s official climate advisors, practitioners who work on the frontline of the heatwave response, and the British public all agree that the UK isn’t ready for more extreme weather,worsening heat, and compounding risks like water scarcity and wildfires.
At the same time, there are important perception gaps to address. Despite the alarming statistics about heat-related deaths in the UK, many people were looking forward to the first heatwaves this summer. Lots think that heatwaves will only become a problem for the UK in the future. And many believe that hot weather poses more of a risk to other people, not themselves.
In this context there are important conversations now happening about how to grapple with the growing climate risks in the UK, including the sudden lurch towards air conditioning (despite its potential to make heat risks worse).
For more on the key issues surrounding heat communication, check out our recent opinion piece in Climate Home News.
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.
The same day the State of the UK Climate report was released, Climate Barometer’s Niall McLoughlin published an opinion piece in Climate Home News, highlighting the urgent need for better communication around extreme heat.
Niall explains that despite improvements to heat warnings, a disjointed landscape of heat communications means that many people feel the UK is poorly prepared for heat risks. Drawing on a range of opinion insights, he calls for improvements such as using social research to 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. Separate research from Cardiff University shows that such efforts must accelerate 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.