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Data from the CAST Data Portal collected in Oct/Nov 2023 shows clear differences around meat reduction.
More women (46%) said they were ‘fairly/very willing’ to eat less meat or meat products than men (39%) – as shown in the chart below. Similarly, women were more likely to say they intended to adopt a vegetarian diet (27% women vs 18% men) or vegan diet (17% women vs 13% men).
This fits with other evidence showing there are notable gender differences when it comes to meat consumption in the UK. For instance, YouGov polling from 2022 showed that while three-quarters of Britons (75%) eat meat – the rates were clearly higher amongst men (82%) than women (69%).
However, the hallmarks of gender differences appeared to be less notable for other forms of diet choices. The CAST data shows little in the way of gender divergence when it comes to buying locally-produced food (64% willingness for women, vs. 65% men) and reducing food waste (82% willingness for women, vs. 80% men).
Chart: Gender differences in willingness to eat less meat or meat products. Source: CAST Data Portal.
In polling commissioned by the Press Association, ahead of COP28 in Dubai, Ipsos MORI asked people whether they thought the commitments made at the event would lead to climate action.
47% believed this was unlikely, whilst only 17% gave a more optimistic answer.
These finding reflect a sense of cynicism that was present before last year’s event in Egypt (which Rishi Sunak eventually attended, but was criticised for initially avoiding), and strikingly low levels of trust in politicians on climate issues.
To the extent that this level of detail registers with public audiences (the same IPSOS poll found only 32% will follow the news around COP28 closely this year, and 61% would not follow the event’s progress), the optics and contradictions of a city famous for its oil-wealth hosting the UN’s flagship climate event is also likely to be playing a role in muting public expectations about the credibility of the conference.
An online survey by the Centre for Climate Change and Social Transformations (CAST) revealed that British people also did not think that reducing red meat consumption is a very effective climate solution, compared to other actions.
When asked to pick which action (from a list of eight) would have the greatest impact on climate change if everybody in the country did it, ‘eat less red meat’ received the fewest number of votes (6-8%).
Other actions on the list were: drive an electric car; minimise air travel; minimise home energy use; minimise food waste; reduce new purchases; use low-carbon heating; walk, cycle or use public transport.
When asked to pick their top three actions, only one-fifth of respondents picked the option about red meat.
Despite this, across the four years of survey data, up to two-thirds of respondents felt that people in the UK should ‘probably’ or ‘definitely’ reduce red meat consumption to limit climate change (58-66%).
A repeated survey run by the Centre for Climate Change and Social Transformations (CAST) investigated which dietary changes British people intend to make to fight climate change.
Across the waves of data between 2020-23, the most popular change was planning meals to reduce food waste – 74-81% of people said they were fairly or very likely to make the change. Buying locally produced food (61-65%) and eating fewer calories (42-46%) were also acceptable.
While 43% of participants were willing to ‘eat less meat or meat products’, willingness was consistently lower when asked about adopting a vegetarian diet (19-27%), and lower still for a vegan diet (11-19%).
Nevertheless, over half (55%) of people who responded felt it was their personal responsibility (alongside business and Government) to take actions to reduce the risk of climate change.
An online survey by the Centre for Climate Change and Social Transformations (CAST) investigated how far British people support different policies to encourage sustainable diets.
The policies were ranked as follows (from most to least popular, according to the percentage of respondents who supported the policy):
Polling by Public First for the Conservative Environment Network (CEN) was carried out in 19 Conservative-held seats in the summer of 2023. The seats were selected for their proximity to existing or proposed major renewable energy developments in the East of England and Oxfordshire.
While the majority would like to see green energy development and new housing in their local area, around a third of both Labour and Conservative voters chose renewable development over the building of new homes.
76% of those surveyed said the rollout of renewable energy so far had been too slow, and 45% would ‘actively support’ or ‘not mind’ a wind farm being built within sight of a window in their home.
The results underscore a growing body of evidence which shows – in national level polling, focus groups and constituency level polling – consistent support for building renewables. They stand in contrast to the perception held by Conservative MPs, which significantly overestimates the level of opposition among their own voters and the population more widely.
Read more about ‘perception gaps’ in our Climate Barometer topic thread.
Based on a survey of 2000 people, Public First have argued that a turn against net zero is a risky political maneuver: by testing different combinations of policy propositions with voters (on the environment and more widely) they found that green investment is one of the most universally popular offers across the electorate, and that whilst anti net-zero sentiment doesn’t move the dial much for those who agree it, for those who oppose it, its a significant vote loser. Public First reports that:
Increased investment in renewable sources and new taxes on the largest polluters in a wider policy platform makes a party 14% more electable
Delaying net zero and continued oil and gas drilling in the North Sea in a wider policy platform makes a party 10% less electable
Voters have genuine questions (and in some cases concerns) about how specific green policies will impact their personal finances and day-to-day lives. These questions should be taken seriously by campaigners and politicians alike to build public support.
But as an electoral strategy, this research shows that reducing net zero ambition, backing away from green investment, and failing to hasten the transition away from fossil fuels are vote losers, rather than winners.
Polling for WalesOnline by Redfield & Wilton shows a sharp rise in the proportion of people opposed to the new ‘default’ 20mph speed limits introduced on certain roads in Wales (where ‘cars mix with pedestrians’).
Although introduced primarily for road-safety reasons, lower speed limits are one way in which air pollution from road traffic can be reduced, and 20mph limits are typically a feature of cleaner-air campaigns.
Support in Wales has dropped across the board, but especially among Conservative voters following intense opposition by the Conservative Party (including organising a petition against the new law)
This pattern is in contrast to the typical ‘Goodwin curve‘ of initial (pre-implementation) opposition softening into majority support once the new rules are in place.
The strength of opposition from Conservative politicians in Cardiff suggests – as with the opposition to clean air zones seen among Conservative MPs in Westminster – that the opposition is partly about creating a political dividing line.
But with a significant percentage of the Welsh public currently in opposition to the scheme, winning over the ‘Persuadables’ is more important than ever – something which ACT Climate Labs has issued recent guidance on around transport policies.
Whilst the change may not currently be popular, driver behaviour showed immediate signs of positive change, with average speeds dropping in the first week of the policy’s implementation.
The political mandate for climate action has strengthened over the past five years according to a report led by the Climate Citizens research group at Lancaster University. But the same report also notes there’s a belief among some MPs that climate concern is concentrated among middle-class and wealthier voters. One MP interviewed for the report said:
If you’re struggling you’re not going to be thinking ‘has COP26 been of success or not?’ They don’t give a damn about offshore, onshore wind, that’s completely irrelevant to their lives.
In fact, resources like Britain Talks Climate show climate change is important across social groups. And typically, the ‘loud minorities’ who oppose renewable energy projects are likely to be over-represented among wealthier constituents.
Our Climate Barometer tracker data shows that MPs underestimate the salience of the environment for voters relative to other issues.
Scotland has a net zero policy framework that is more ambitious than the UK’s overall targets.
Polling by PanelBase (commissioned by The Times) found Scottish public opinion on delaying the phase out of gas boilers and the sale of new petrol and diesel vehicles was broadly in line with wider UK patterns, with support for delaying current heating targets slightly higher (45%) than opposition (38%), and support for delaying the petrol/diesel vehicle phase out date higher (51%) than opposition (38%).
The wording of the question participants were asked on gas boilers was, however, misleading, with people asked if they supported or opposed “Rishi Sunak’s decision to scrap the phasing out of gas boilers?”
The policy has not been scrapped – the phase out date has been extended.
Combined with the ‘scrapping’ of policies that did not in fact exist in Sunak’s September speech (e.g. a ‘meat tax’), there’s a pattern of using terms like ‘ban’ ‘scrap’ and ‘phase out’ interchangeably in a way that’s likely to mislead voters, and in this case potentially skew assessments of public opinion.
Climate Barometer tracker data provides a clear signal over time on key net zero policies like the phasing out of petrol/diesel vehicles and gas boilers.
YouGov polling in October 2023 (during the Labour Party conference) shows more support (50%) than opposition (31%) for decarbonising the electricity supply by 2030. Among Conservative party voters, the balance of support-opposition is reversed.
Whilst this level of support is lower than that generally seen for renewables (which is typically more than 70%), the 2030 target is a policy goal that some industry figures consider ambitious and will require – as analysis by Public First into the infrastructure required to decarbonise the grid has shown – ‘hitting the ground running’ if Labour takes power at the next election.
A report seeking to spotlight how people of colour experience and engage with climate change in Britain finds that people of colour show very high levels of personal engagement with climate actions (73% having changed their lifestyles in response to climate change).
Despite this, many still face barriers to action:
“The single most commonly reported barrier was other things taking up people’s time and energy (82%). Perceived insufficiency of climate awareness or knowledge (80%), difficulty or inconvenience of climate actions (77%), and perceived inefficacy of individual action (73%), were also commonly reported to be significant barriers to taking individual action on climate change”
A new report explores the personal experiences of climate change by people of colour in the UK.
Charles Ogunbode and colleagues report that awareness (and reported experience) of climate change is high: 92% of British people of colour believe that climate change is happening, 61% report experiencing impacts of climate change, and 85% are really worried about the impact of climate change in places other than the UK.
The impacts of climate change experienced by British people of colour in the UK include heat waves (over 60%), severe snow disruptions (25%) and flooding in their local area (20%).
Beyond self-reported experiences of extreme weather, some disproportionate effects of climate change are harder to document – the report notes that London’s Black African and Caribbean population are the most exposed to air pollution, which causes approximately 40,000 deaths per year in the UK, and contributes to many adverse health conditions.
Public First conducted a poll between 27 September and 2 October 2022 with a sample of 2,000 British adults, and ran four focus groups. They found:
Public First and Onward tested the support of 24 policies which would cut greenhouse gas emissions (some were existing government policies and some were not). All 24 received net-positive ratings looking across all voters, with energy efficiency measures, ramping up renewables (wind and solar), incentivising green home upgrades, planting trees, investment in public transport, and policies to help people switch to electric cars all proving highly popular.
Conservative voters currently did not support the phasing out of sales of new petrol/diesel cars by 2030 or gas boilers by 2035, but the report argues that:
Importantly, opposition is to targets and deadlines rather than the technologies
Understanding which net zero policies are consistently popular among the electorate is as important as understanding what the current barriers to support are for less popular policies: ‘win win’ ideas such as incentivising home upgrades/rolling out insulation are a way to hold the net zero conversation with voters on less contentious ground than, for example, low traffic neighbourhoods.
Polling by Public First and analysed by Onward, paints an important picture of how the public thinks about green policies in the context of the cost of living crisis.
As the Figure below shows, out of 11 reasons offered to people as to why the cost of living has become higher, the “UK trying to be more environmentally friendly” comes last, a long way behind increased global demand and price of energy, the conflict in Ukraine, Brexit and Covid-19.
Elsewhere in the report the authors write:
Voters thought that greener forms of energy were cheaper. Over half of the public (56%) and Conservative voters (53%) thought that investing in wind and solar would bring their energy bills down (vs a quarter who felt that investing less) in renewables would reduce living costs.
The message across these findings is clear: concerns about the cost of living are widely held, but green policies are not seen as the cause of the country’s current economic problems.