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People of colour in the UK are disproportionately affected by climate change impacts. But despite this, there remains a lack of research around diversity, experience and engagement with climate change.
Its well established that the UK climate sector is very unrepresentative in terms of ethnic diversity – but climate opinion data is too often under-representative too.
Only around 1 in 20 people working in environmental charities identify as a person of colour, and campaigns often fail to reach diverse audiences.
At the same time, many ‘nationally representative’ survey samples either don’t contain high enough numbers of appropriate quotas for people of colour, or do not report them. When they do, the numbers tend to be too low to make meaningful comparisons. The voices and perspectives of people of colour should be central to the UK climate discourse, but too often they are not, whether through a lack of representation in opinion data, or a lack of representation in the climate sector itself.
People of colour in the UK are disproportionately affected by climate change impacts, but there is a paucity of research around their experience of and engagement with climate change. The Spotlight report, published by a team led by Dr Charles Ogunbode at the University of Nottingham in 2023, was astonishingly the first dedicated exploration of the views and perspectives of British people of colour on climate change through a large-scale survey.
In a collaboration with Dr Ogunbode and the centre for Climate Change & Social Transformations (CAST), Climate Barometer re-analysed some of the Spotlight data, along with recent data from the annual CAST ‘climate views’ survey, in order to provide some preliminary findings around ethnicity and engagement with climate change.
These initial analysis suggests that people of colour in the UK are likely to have experienced a range of climate impacts personally, see climate change as a serious, urgent threat, and express high levels of support for ambitious climate policies. However, the current evidence base is very limited and sample sizes don’t allow for robust comparisons to be made between different minority ethnic and racial groups. So there’s a real need for more insights to better guide campaigns and strategies – something that forms the central call of the report.
Survey samples which are representative of ethnicity matter on their own terms. But improving diversity in climate engagement (and the climate movement) requires more attention to ethnicity in opinion research. Researchers, research funders, insights commissioners and campaigners have the power to make a positive impact by:
Public support for climate policies – from heat pumps, to home insulation, to electric vehicles – has always been about a lot more than just having access to the right facts.
Someone might like the sound of an EV, but not (yet) be able to afford it. Plenty of people have heard scare stories about heat pumps (although the views of people who actually know someone who has had one installed, tend to be more positive).
But a number of recent polls – from ECIU and Climate Barometer’s tracker – shine a light on the importance of building familiarity with EVs, because misconceptions abound.
For example, ECIU polling found that more than 5 in 10 (54%) petrol car drivers think EV drivers run out of charge at least once a year but, in reality, more than 8 in 10 (82%) of EV drivers report never running out of charge.
This is a significant misperception sitting behind the ‘range anxiety’ sometimes cited as a reason not to switch to an EV.
Climate Barometer polling tested a range of ‘anti-net zero’ narratives and soundbites, and found very few of them currently have any cut through with the public. But there was one exception: 40% of people say they don’t think EVs are more environmentally friendly than cars (when in fact they are).
And this wasn’t the only misconception about EVs.
When people were reminded that only new vehicles (not second hand ones) will be phased out after 2030, there was a 9% increase in people saying that the phase out would not affect them at all.
Support for the phasing out of petrol and diesel cars was higher (+5%), and opposition is lower (-6%) when people were reminded that it is only new vehicle sales which must be zero emissions by 2030 (39% support, 38% oppose), compared to support without the prompt about second-hand vehicles (34% support, 44% oppose).
This is a statistically significant difference.
The new Labour government has brought its plans for a publicly owned energy company, Great British Energy, to parliament.
The Great British Energy Bill was formally introduced to the House of Commons on the 25th of July, and the bill is expected to pass through its second stage in early September.
Following a long-standing commitment to base the energy company in Scotland, Labour have since announced GB Energy will be headquartered in Aberdeen.
Has support for net zero risen or fallen since the election?
Following the General Election, there is a clear uptick in support for the country’s net zero targets. Support for net zero by 2050 is at its highest point in almost 2 years, yet enthusiasm for some flagship policies hasn’t yet caught up.