Climate Barometer Tracker

When asked about their personal experiences of climate impacts, large proportions of the public have experienced heat waves, extreme heat, storms, and flooding. Of these, heat is the most commonly experienced climate impact, with almost half of Britons surveyed saying they had personally experienced it.

Only 28% of people surveyed in the Climate Barometer Tracker in April 2024 said that they ‘have never experienced any of these climate events’.

Climate Barometer Tracker data shows that renewable energy is seen as better for the country’s energy security than coal, oil and gas.

On reliability, the public are split, with 41% saying renewables are more, or as reliable as fossil fuels, and 40% of the public seeing fossil fuels as ‘more reliable’.

However, renewables are also seen as cheaper, and more popular with the public.

Climate Barometer survey data shows the range of emotions that the public feel about climate change. Worry (43%) and sadness (20%) are the most frequently felt emotions by the British public overall, with the next most frequently chosen option being ‘I feel no emotion about climate change’.

There are differences in the emotions experienced by different types of voters. Those intending to vote Labour, Lib Dems and Greens felt mostly ‘worried’, ‘sad’, and ‘scared’. Whilst negative, these are active emotional reactions which wider research suggests are associated with engagement with climate change, and support for climate policy (although can also lead to a sense of fatalism).

Those intending to vote Conservative were ‘worried’ as well, but the next most frequently chosen options were ‘hopeful’, ‘no emotions’ and ‘interested’. This somewhat more positive emotional register perhaps reflects greater faith in existing institutions (‘the establishment’) to address the challenge of climate change.

The most frequently selected option for Reform UK voters was ‘I feel no emotions about climate change’. Whilst this certainly indicates a lack of positive engagement with climate change, it also echoes what wider polling has found about the lack of salience of climate change as an issue impacting Reform voters’ electoral choices. It is perhaps more accurate to characterise Reform voters as ‘not interested in’ rather than ‘opposed to’ net zero.

Slightly different patterns can be seen among the seven British segments, where Progressive Activists are much more likely to report anger (30%), and Disengaged Battlers more likely to say they are scared (25%). Established Liberals are among the most hopeful (20%), and Disengaged Traditionalists are the most likely to say they feel no emotions about climate change (36%), followed by Backbone Conservatives (21%).

Climate Barometer tracker data shows that the public are largely accepting of, or feel no particular emotions at all about new local pylons being constructed in their area.

As the plans for Great British Energy are laid out, the UK will see a major grid upgrade to carry renewable energy throughout the country. Our data consistently shows more support than opposition for local pylons and power lines, and this new data tells the same story.

Even so, tacit acceptance of the idea does not mean that the public won’t have legitimate questions about the way in which new infrastructure is carried out. Rather than characterising this as NIMBYism, the concerns of locals need to be taken seriously for a successful transition.

There are dozens of different narratives in circulation about climate change, arguing in favour of climate action and green policies, as well as arguing against them. But which ones actually cut through to the public?

Climate Barometer tracker data shows that narratives that are pro-climate action are being heard and are generally agreed with by the public. Even a striking statistic about emissions inequality (the richest 1% emit twice as much as the poorest 50% combined) has been heard of and agreed with by 48% of the public.

In contrast, statements sometimes made in opposition to net zero and climate action (‘we can either fix the climate or fix the economy’) and key anti-net zero attack lines (‘net zero policies will make us colder and poorer’), or misinformation about 15 minute neighbourhoods are mostly unheard of.

Areas where misinformation is more prevalent include attitudes about electric vehicles (being ‘no more environmentally-friendly than petrol or diesel cars’), and the role of population growth in global carbon emissions.

MPs generally indicate higher exposure to media narratives about climate change, and more Conservative MPs in particular seem to agree with certain statements about the reliability of renewables ‘when the wind doesn’t blow and the sun doesn’t shine’, and on the sustainability of electric vehicles.

Conservative MPs are more likely than the general population to read newspapers like the Telegraph, where many of the anti-net zero statements tested in the Climate Barometer tracker can regularly be found.

Majorities of the public across political lines show support for building new pylons carrying renewable energy in their local area. Alongside renewables, this is an area of consensus – even those intending to vote Reform UK, whose climate views can differ from the rest of the British public somewhat, show high levels of support compared to opposition (although notably, they also show the highest level of opposition, at 39%).

Despite the relative public consensus, both the public and MPs tend to underestimate public support for new local pylons. Only 7% of Conservative MPs and 17% of Labour MPs thought their constituents would support the measure.

Climate Barometer tracker data shows only slight changes in support and opposition for phasing out the sale of new petrol and diesel cars by 2035.

Overall public support remains stable, if slightly on the downward trend. There appears to rising opposition, especially among Conservative voters.

Despite the attention drawn to the policy by Rishi Sunak’s speech in September 2023, there were no obvious subsequent changes in public sentiment. However, among Conservative voters, there is more opposition than support and opposition has grown by around 10% over the period of a year. Support remains higher than opposition among Labour voters.

The public feels that the UK government’s role in high energy bills comes from roughly two areas: one is a failure reform energy market, not transitioning to renewable energy faster, allowing the UK to become too dependent on gas; the second is in privatising energy companies and only looking after the interests of big energy companies. Overall it appears that people understand that the energy system is not working and green initiatives are far from people’s minds on this issue.

Large sections of the public, from across political lines say that UK politicians’ handling of climate change has been more incompetent than competent, more indecisive than decisive, and more out of touch with the public than in touch with the public.

This data was collected in April 2024, following a period of delays to net zero and climate action, with Labour removing its 28 billion green spending target – and prior to that, the rollback of net zero policies by the Conservative party in September.

Despite having concerns about the costs of climate change, and the cost of living, people in the UK have a clear understanding of the trade-offs necessary for climate action. Despite minor shifts, a majority still feel that it will cost too much *not* to tackle climate change now. A smaller percentage (21% in our most recent wave)  say that “it will cost too much to tackle climate change now”.

Climate Barometer tracker data shows that over the past year, the number of people who agree that ‘people who campaign on climate issues are ‘out of touch’ with the rest of the country’ has increased (from 29% to 37%), while fewer people disagree (from 43% to 34%). Overall, the public is remains split: similar numbers are also unsure (30%).

This division reflects the tension at the heart of climate activism: how to challenge the status quo whilst avoiding alienating the people who, ultimately, campaigners aim to ‘win over’.

In terms of the impacts of extreme weather and climate change-related effects, the public is primarily concerned about: harm towards nature and wildlife, suffering and hardship for the world’s poorest, that their bills and costs may rise, and that some food will become unavailable.

The public tend to see less connection between extreme weather and climate change and the effect on their physical and mental health, or ability to spend time outdoors or travel. Only 12% said they were worried climate change and extreme weather would lead to damage to their home.

Climate Barometer data shows that while overall only around 16% of the public say they are worried that climate change will impact their ‘mental health and wellbeing’ over the next ten years, a closer look tells us a more nuanced story.

In line with an abundance of research showing young people have among the highest climate anxiety, the data shows a clear link between age and worry about mental health and wellbeing, with older groups much less concerned than younger groups.

Looking at the same question by income bands, those earning the least (under £5000 per year) are most likely to worry that climate change will affect their mental health and wellbeing, underscoring the connections between income, cost of living pressures,  and vulnerability to climate impacts.

According to our Climate Barometer Tracker, 48% of the public agree with the idea that “wealthy countries, with a history of high greenhouse gas emissions, should provide compensation to poorer countries for damages caused by the climate crisis”. By breaking this down by political voting behaviour, we see that the majority of this comes from Labour voters – with 65% agreeing. Of Conservative voters, 35% agree (and roughly equal numbers disagree) with the statement.

MPs, however, show a starker contrast, with Labour MPs in majority agreement (61%) and Conservative MPs in majority disagreement (58%).

Climate Barometer tracker data shows that there is significantly more support than opposition for ending fracking in the UK.

A closer look reveals further details: by splitting the data according to party political support, there is a more equal division among Conservative voters on whether the UK should end fracking.

But opposition to ending fracking is particularly high among Conservative MPs (55%). This stands in stark contrast with Labour MPs, 85% of whom support ending fracking. This makes fracking one of the most polarising aspects of the energy system among MPs – on many other issues (insulation, solar, offshore wind) there is much less difference between the representatives of different political parties.

The latest Climate Barometer tracker data compares the actions that the public and MPs say they are taking to address climate change in their personal lives.

The most frequent behaviours include: Recycling and reducing plastic use, reducing electricity use, and buying local foods and reducing food waste

The least frequent behaviours include: becoming vegan, installing heat pumps, carbon offsetting when flying, and installing solar panels

MPs are more likely to take part in actions like walking/cycling or taking public transport to work, driving an electric vehicle, as well as buying local foods and choosing environmentally friendly brands (likely due to MPs being part of a subset of the population who are wealthier). 

There’s a similar trend for household behaviours, where MPs are more likely to have improved their home insulation, and switched to renewable energy. However, this does not carry through to all areas: MPs have not installed solar panels or a heat pump in greater numbers than the public. MPs are understandably more likely to have contacted MPs about climate change than the public. 

Around 17% of both MPs and the public say they have taken none of these actions for environmental reasons.