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Both Labour and Conservative MPs continue to underestimate the majority support there is for the UK’s declared net zero target. When asked what proportion of the UK public they believe SUPPORTS (either strongly or somewhat) the UK’s current plan to achieve Net Zero greenhouse gas emissions by 2050, MPs’ estimates averaged at 56%, well below the 63% of the public who actually support the target.
Looking beyond the mean of responses, Conservative MPs were found to be more likely to underestimate public support for the target than Labour MPs. 13% of Conservative MPs provided an estimated public support figure in the correct range of 61-70%, compared to 22% of Labour MPs whose response fell into that bracket of actual public support.
The Climate Barometer Tracker has followed public and MP support for local renewable infrastructure in their area since 2022. Since the beginning, we have pointed to a perception gap between the (high) public support for local renewables projects such as new solar parks and wind farms, and what the public and MPs think support and opposition looks like.
The latest wave of the tracker shows that this gap remains: public support for new local renewable projects remains high. People, and their representatives continue to underestimate this support, and overestimate opposition.
In this wave, we also asked those who have personal experience with local infrastructure projects, how they felt about them. Overall, those who have a newly proposed project in their area, and those who have a fully or partially built one, feel accepting, proud, and relieved. A minority report feeling worry, anger, and upsetness, but for the most part, emotional responses are positive.
Those experiencing the most negative emotions were people living in areas where a renewable energy project had been rejected.
Climate change didn’t cause the culture wars, but culture wars are making climate change harder to solve.
In new research from Kings College London (KCL), divisions over climate change are seen as worse than divisions over Brexit, with the public more likely to say there is tension between climate change sceptics and believers (64%) than between Leavers and Remainers (52%), or between younger and older generations (45%).
This is despite the broad-based consensus on the importance of the issue that Climate Barometer data evidences, and which is seen consistently in wider research (e.g. the recent Britain Talks Climate & Nature report, which highlights widespread care for nature, wildlife and the benefits that the transition to clean, renewable energy can bring).
More new research (from Hope Not Hate) diving into the differences between people who intend to vote Reform highlights climate change as one of the dividing lines among a disjointed coalition of factions. ‘Squeezed Stewards’ (in an echo of More in Common’s ‘Rooted Patriots’ segment, who have high levels of threat perception around environmental risks) care about nature and acknowledge the climate crisis. But the ‘Hardline Conservatives’ subgroup of Reform backers are much more likely to be in the minority of people who reject action on climate change entirely.
Our latest public opinion data & a new measure of climate opinion
Here’s how public views have shifted over the summer – and introducing a new ‘health check’ of climate opinion.