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The latest Climate Barometer tracker shows some changes in how the public are engaging in pro-climate personal actions.
In August 2026, more of the public said that they are walking, cycling or using public transport (41%) compared to last year (30% in April 2025), an increase of 11%. More people also report having improved their home insulation (+5%), installed solar panels (+4%), bought local products and reduce food waste (+4%), signed petitions (+4%) and driven electric cars instead of petrol or diesel cars (+3%).
Fewer people report recycling and reducing plastic use (-16%). On other measures, there has been little visible change.
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:
Many policies that involve improving the natural environment are seen as ‘protecting nature’ rather than tackling or responding/adapting to climate change:
Other urban infrastructure and design policies tend also to be seen as primarily addressing other issues:
And policies aiming to target the wealthy/ polluting groups are also less likely to be seen as outright climate policies
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.
What impact do visual representations of climate protesters in the media have on audiences? A new study has addressed this in light of the recent media trend towards depicting more young and female protesters in news stories.
By comparing audience responses to 10 different images (photo-edited to make comparisons in the study), the researchers found that images showing climate protestors and the police together, as well as images of younger protestors, tended to lead to more negative emotional responses amongst audiences. This included feelings of guilt and shame about climate impacts affecting future generations.
The content of the protest images did not deeply influence audiences’ broader climate attitudes and behaviours after viewing them. But the researchers did find that feelings towards protest images were influenced by a range of factors, such as the audiences’ gender, and suggest that the viewers’ worldview may play a role too.
New research has revealed that politicians visibly ‘leading by example’ can substantially increase the willingness of members of the UK public to adopt further low-carbon lifestyle changes.
The study looked at over a thousand people’s responses to the examples of ‘high-profile individuals’ in a nationally representative survey. It found that the vast majority (86%) wanted to see politicians, celebrities and business leaders setting a good example in terms of their climate actions. Citizens were also more willing to adopt low-carbon actions, such as flying less, eating less meat, or driving an electric car if they saw leaders doing the same. At the same time, people’s overall approval of leaders who were setting a strong example improved.
Despite this, further investigation showed that politicians may currently be reluctant to publicise their personal climate-friendly actions due to fear of criticism for virtue signaling, or hypocrisy.
Together the work suggests that rather than pulling off ‘green stunts’, politicians’ consistency of action over time is crucial, and it can also be beneficial if they acknowledge that some changes may be too difficult or costly for everyone to make (such as buying an electric car or installing a heat pump).