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A report from the New Climate Institute finds that the UK has jumped the highest in its league of countries’ performance on tackling climate change, finishing behind only Denmark and the Netherlands.
While no country has performed well enough to qualify as a ‘very high’ performance, the UK’s ranking has been boosted by the new Labour government’s commitments to reduce emissions and roll out renewable energy across the country.
Despite this, the report says “the country is not on track to reach this target despite a significant reduction in 2023. While the coal exit was set for 2024, oil and gas use also need to be phased out…credible plans now only cover
one-third of the emissions reductions required to achieve the 2030 target“.
Ultimately, whether the UK can remain in its high position depends on whether it can follow through on ambition with effective implementation.
A new study of over 14000 Britons looks at how the British public see the UK’s role on climate action on the global stage. The research finds that the public wants:
In light of the results of the 2024 US election, most Britons want to see the UK either maintain (40%) or strengthen (26%) its commitments to climate change, even if President-elect Trump withdraws the USA from the Paris Agreement again.
A new survey has found that two-thirds of people around the globe have not heard of the term ‘climate justice’, and less than 1-in-5 feel they have a good understanding of what it means. But despite a lack of awareness about the terminology, a clear majority (70%) felt that climate change is driven by capitalism and colonisation. The study by Charles Ogunbode and colleagues builds on previous work addressing engagement with climate justice, by suggesting that people are aware of the key issues underpinning climate justice, even if they don’t consciously link these with the concept. People’s beliefs about climate justice-related issues were also found to positively influence their climate actions and support for policies – suggesting there is much value in building greater awareness.
A new study has illustrated a clear demand from citizens around the world for governments to strengthen their climate commitments ahead of COP29. The UN-funded ‘People’s Climate Vote’ – reportedly the world’s largest standalone public opinion survey on climate change, covering 77 countries – has found that four in five people (80%) globally are calling for their country to strengthen its commitments to climate action.
A clear desire was also expressed for greater climate collaboration between countries, alongside help for poorer nations. A very large majority (86%) believed that countries should put their disagreements aside and work together on addressing climate change (In the UK this was even higher at 90%), while over three-quarters globally (79%) called for richer countries to give more help to poorer countries to address climate change.
The evidence strengthens calls for international agreements to make urgent progress on climate change. However, it should be noted that given the large number of countries surveyed, questions in this survey are high-level and general, rather than tailored to each country. This means they may not capture the complexities of climate debates within nations, and further context is needed to interpret the findings at the country-level.