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More than 3 in 5 Brits support local renewable energy infrastructure projects, but neither MPs nor the public realise how strong that support is, new Climate Barometer polling shows.
There is high in-principle support for a new onshore wind farm (69%), a new solar energy park (73%), and new pylons and power lines for carrying renewable energy (60%), even as those are proposed to be built in people’s local area.
Whilst support for these renewable energy infrastructure projects has remained largely stable since 2022/2023, perception gaps both from the public when it comes to other people in their area and MPs in terms of their constituents do not seem to have reduced over time.
Moreover, across each renewable project polled, MPs are even more likely to overestimate local opposition than the general public, suggesting that community views are not adequately represented in local discussions.
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
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