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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.
In the face of rising climate impacts, UK-based researchers are calling for more measures that simultaneously tackle the root causes of climate change, while enabling society to adapt.
Efforts to tackle climate change have tended to prioritise mitigation (reducing emissions) over adaptation efforts (reducing vulnerabilities), and these two broad types of measures are often split across government departments, such as Defra and DESNZ in the UK.
But new research, using the UK’s record-breaking 40C heatwave in 2022 as a case study, has found clear demands for national and local governments to roll out measures that combine mitigation and adaptation.
Policy-makers, climate organisations, and those working in emergency response felt that approaches – such as creating climate-resilient neighbourhoods, tree-planting and other nature-based solutions – should be a priority, given their dual benefits. They felt efforts to combine emissions reductions and adaptation have challenges, but were feasible, with better coordination.
The new analysis also suggests that framing these efforts as part of working towards a ‘climate resilient net zero’ can be a useful way of engaging a range of relevant audiences and decision-makers – building on existing support for net zero.
The study findings are supported by Climate Barometer tracker insights, which shows that both the public and MPs feel mitigation and adaptation are equally important. It also echoes previous work which found that the public view mitigation and adaptation as “two sides of the same coin”.