Energy & Net Zero

Latest Climate Barometer tracking finds that people in Scotland and London are most likely to have seen measures to address climate change in their local area.

As highlighted in the chart below, people in Scotland are most likely to have noticed

• EV charging stations in their area, especially compared to those in Northern Ireland and the North of England
• More solar panels and heat pumps on buildings
• More traffic reduction measures
• Flood defences

Londoners are similar, but also noting more EV infrastructure, traffic reduction measures and flood defences. Londoners are also by far the most likely of all regions to have seen heat reduction measures implemented in their area.

Those in the North of England, Wales, England’s East and the Midlands, and the South are more likely than those in Scotland and London to say that they have seen ‘none of the above’ in their area.

This data points to emerging evidence for gaps and inequalities in the regional implementation of climate measures, building on other Climate Barometer tracker data showing income gaps around the same measures.

Policies proposed to address climate change are varied in scope. Our latest Climate Barometer tracker looks at whether many of these policies are seen by the public as ‘climate policies’ or whether they are believed to be targeting other issues.

Some policies are seen as primarily addressing climate change:

• Phasing out petrol and diesel vehicles by 2035 (60%), with 25% also saying this is aimed at improving health and wellbeing
• Expanding renewable energy generation in the UK (58%), but also seen as lowering household bills and costs (38%), and encouraging economic growth and creating jobs (29%)
• Ultra low emissions zones (57%), which are also seen as aiming to improve health and wellbeing (45%)
• A tax on frequent fliers is primarily seen as a climate policy (45%)
• Community control and benefit from their own renewable energy (41%), but also a measure for lowering household bills and encouraging jobs and growth (35%)

Many policies that involve improving the natural environment are seen as ‘protecting nature’ rather than tackling or responding/adapting to climate change:

• Restoring habitats and planting more trees is seen by most as protecting nature and wildlife (79%)
• Investment in green and blue spaces is seen as a measure to protect nature and wildlife (68%)
• Cleaning up oceans and rivers is seen as a measure to protect nature and wildlife (76)%

Other urban infrastructure and design policies tend also to be seen as primarily addressing other issues:

• Insulating homes is seen primarily as a measure to lower bills and costs (68%)
• 15 minute neighbourhoods is seen by most as a measure to improve health and wellbeing (56%)
• Investing in public transport is seen as mainly encouraging growth and jobs (40%)

And policies aiming to target the wealthy/ polluting groups are also less likely to be seen as outright climate policies

• A windfall tax on energy company and oil & gas profits is mainly seen as a measure to lower household bills and costs (37%), with 33% saying it is a climate policy
• A tax on the ultra rich is primarily seen as a measure to tackle inequality (51%)

Policies often have multiple aims and goals, and whether policies are seen as ‘climate’ policies is not a problem in and of itself. In many cases, a climate policy being seen as a cost of living or nature protection measure may mean a wider section of society see its benefits. Crucially, it is important to be aware of how various policies are being ‘read’ by the public, and whether or not the aims of the policy are being understood.

‘Net zero’ has made national headlines in September, with an Energy Security and Net Zero committee report recommending that the government stop talking about net zero, to Prime Minister Andy Burnham reaffirming the policy, a few hours later, explicitly stating the need for the UK to reach net zero by 2050.

Our latest data shows that holding steady is the right move, with net zero still receiving majority support among the public and MPs, and even trending upward slightly.

While it is clear that ‘net zero’ is not the most compelling communications phrase, it is also apparent that the public understand and are willing to support it, especially when linked back to  its purpose, to address climate change. Rather than ditching the term, our work suggests that talking about the government’s net zero target is best done when connected to compelling reasons ‘why’, and clear explanations for ‘how’ it can be achieved.

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.

The government’s newly published Local Power Plan points the country in a direction that the British public support: clean energy that’s transparent, affordable, and delivers real benefits to communities and their local environments. 

Our latest Climate Barometer tracker shows that people across the UK are in agreement on the top priorities for new infrastructure in their area. These are: the project’s impact on the local environment, what it means for energy bills, and whether it benefits the local community.

Though their order varies slightly, these three priorities are consistently the highest for all groups across age, gender, region, social grade, housing tenure, political affiliation, education level, ethnicity, and whether they live in urban or rural areas.

People’s views on climate change and net zero were fairly low on the list, highlighting (at least when it comes to specific clean energy projects) that local impacts and practical considerations loom larger for the public than the salience of climate change as a wider issue. 

This doesn’t mean joining the dots with the risks of climate change and the benefits net zero can bring isn’t important – it’s crucial. But getting the delivery of policies like the Local Power Plan right is a key route to rebuilding climate salience and shoring up support for the wider net zero programme.  

The government’s newly published Local Power Plan points the country in a direction that the British public support: clean energy that’s transparent, affordable, and delivers real benefits to communities and their local environments.

When we asked about the three most important factors for involving local communities on infrastructure proposals, both the public and MPs were most likely to select “clear, plain language information about the project and its impacts” and “being asked for views early, before decisions are made”. These were followed by “a clear explanation of how views influenced the final decision” for MPs and “independent or trusted organisations running the process” for the public.

When we asked which 3 factors people felt were most important in terms of influencing their support or opposition for local infrastructure projects, they picked: the project’s impact on the local environment, on energy bills and on the local community as the top considerations.

These three priorities are consistently the highest for all groups across age, gender, region, social grade, housing tenure, political support, education level, ethnicity, and whether they live in urban or rural areas; a rare point of alignment between these different subgroups of the public.

Strikingly, what made much less of a difference were people’s views about climate change and net zero.

This doesn’t mean that belief in (or concern about) climate change isn’t a critical foundation on which to build engagement around clean energy in general (this is the core idea behind linking the ‘how and the why’ on net zero, as we argued in our recent message testing work with Public First).

But when it comes to specific clean energy projects, the local impacts and financial considerations loom larger: as the transition becomes ever more place-based, this trend is only likely to accelerate.

Like support for the 2050 net zero target, support for renewables comfortably outpaces opposition. And people are much more likely to consider renewables as the route to building energy security than fossil fuels.

But there is a creeping growth in support for oil and gas – wrapped up in the very same conversation about energy security. Since the 2024 election, support among MPs for expanding drilling for oil and gas has inched up, driven by Conservative MPs pursuing an increasingly Reform-influenced agenda on domestic energy policy.  

Yet, despite most Britons supporting clean energy, even when it means wind and solar farms in their local area, there remains a clear perception gap. As covered by Business Green, our most recent data shows that both the public and MPs continue to overestimate local opposition to these renewable developments. 

Our tracker shows the enduring popularity of policies that also save on household bills (like installing insulation, or incentives to do so).

Although Low Traffic Neighbourhoods (LTNs) get a bad rep, our tracker shows support outweighing opposition and support gently rising over the past three years.

One way to look at levels of policy support across the piece is that they’re really quite stable – but some are not stable in a good way. When it comes to sales of new gas boilers, and the phase out of sales of new petrol and diesel vehicles, opposition started to outpace support around 18 months ago, and this trend has (slowly) continued.