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The latest wave of Climate Barometer tracker data shows that across political divides, both the public and MPs continue to underestimate public support for the UK’s net zero targets.
Conservative MPs and Labour MPs both tend to underestimate public support overall (which is at 69% for the public in general), as well as the support for net zero among voters of their own parties.
Underestimations like this matter, because they feed back in to the discourse on net zero: if people (falsely) believe others don’t support net zero, then this is likely to stoke a sense of fatalism and over time could undermine actual support.
And for MPs, a misreading of public opinion means the right signal is not being heard from voters, which can underpin faulty calculations about the political gains to be had from opposing net zero.
Following months of sweltering heatwaves, record-breaking wildfires and five regions in drought, this week it was provisionally confirmed that 2025 was the UK’s hottest summer on record.
While this new record was made ‘70 times’ more likely by climate change, the overwhelming sentiment is that the country is not prepared for more summers like this. The UK’s official climate advisors, practitioners who work on the frontline of the heatwave response, and the British public all agree that the UK isn’t ready for more extreme weather,worsening heat, and compounding risks like water scarcity and wildfires.
At the same time, there are important perception gaps to address. Despite the alarming statistics about heat-related deaths in the UK, many people were looking forward to the first heatwaves this summer. Lots think that heatwaves will only become a problem for the UK in the future. And many believe that hot weather poses more of a risk to other people, not themselves.
In this context there are important conversations now happening about how to grapple with the growing climate risks in the UK, including the sudden lurch towards air conditioning (despite its potential to make heat risks worse).
For more on the key issues surrounding heat communication, check out our recent opinion piece in Climate Home News.
A climate of silence in the UK?
New analysis from Climate Barometer reveals more than half of Britons say they ‘rarely’ or ‘never’ share their opinions on climate change in everyday conversations.