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Net Zero

Signal in the Noise: Trends in the UK climate discourse in 2023/24

11 December 2024

A story – told through data – of the climate discourse in the UK.  

Today we launch a new Climate Barometer publication – Signal in the Noise.

Signal in the Noise tracks trends in public opinion from the 2023 Uxbridge by-election to the first 100 days of Labour, set against the evolution of online narratives captured by ACT Climate Labs. 

Read it here to discover:

  • July 2023: How a by-election triggered a wave of anti-net zero rhetoric
  • August 2023: Why concerns about the costs of green policies continued to grow
  • September 2023: What led Rishi Sunak to water down the government’s net zero commitments
  • October 2023: A growth in misleading media coverage and increasing noise about NIMBYs discourse
  • January 2024: How a stormy start to 2024 revealed a disconnect in people’s perceptions of climate risks
  • February 2024: What led to Labour’s £28 billion backtrack
  • March 2024: Snowballing concerns around the ‘Great Grid Upgrade’
  • April 2024: What Reform voters think about climate change
  • May 2024: How the Conservatives focused on the ‘war on motorists’ in the run up to the General Election
  • July 2024: Why we now have the ‘greenest parliament ever’
  • July-Oct 2024: What dominated Labour’s first 100 days
  • Five signals in the noise that capture the climate discourse in the past 15 months

 

 

The latest from the Net Zero timeline:

Opinion Insight 10th December 2025

Public think polluting business and industry should pay for net zero

Climate Barometer tracker polling from October 2025 shows that the public primarily hold ‘businesses that pollute the most’, ‘the fossil fuel industry’, and ‘energy companies’ responsible for covering the majority of costs of transitioning to net zero.

This is consistent for almost every voter group, with the exception of Reform UK supporters, who are reluctant to single out the fossil fuel industry, and are more likely to say ‘nothing would make net zero fair (22%), and Green party supporters, who are more likely to hold the wealthiest 1% of households responsible.

Notably, the public do not hold airline companies, the motor vehicle industry, or households who pollute the most – to the same degree of responsibility.

View Net Zero timeline now

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