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Cost of Living

Ipsos polling: Voters have an appetite for helping the environment alongside concerns about affordability

06 August 2023

Ipsos MORI polling – August 2023

In a poll of around 1000 people in early August, 2023, 51% said they’d like to do more to reduce climate change and help the environment, but that they couldn’t afford to.

The same survey found that people think that the economic costs of climate change itself will be greater than the cost of measures to reduce climate change (by 41% – 22%)

In the contrast between these two responses, a lot is revealed: whilst people want to do more, cost-of-living pressures put restrictions on this.

But there is an acknowledgement that tackling climate change is less expensive than not tackling it.

Policies that reduce the upfront costs of new technologies like heat pumps (through government subsidies or as uptake grows and prices fall) can help to square this circle, and are a crucial aspect of positioning climate policy as fair for voters.

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The latest from the Cost of Living timeline:

Climate Barometer Tracker 18th May 2024

Tracker data: The public blames government and the energy system (not green initiatives) for high bills

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.

Climate Barometer Tracker 10th May 2024

Tracker data: Majority of public think climate inaction will cost too much

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”.

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