The British public is less concerned about climate change than it was five years ago, but more people think companies should take greater responsibility to tackle it, according to a survey published today.
The
independent nationwide poll, which compares
climate change findings with a same survey in 2005, also reveals there are increasing levels of concern among the British population about
energy security and that people are much more in favour of
renewable energy, although support for nuclear has increased.
The survey of 1,822 people across England, Scotland and Wales, was carried out by researchers from Cardiff University and Ipsos MORI and looks at the British public’s attitudes towards climate change and energy supply.
It reveals that most of us (78 per cent) still consider the world’s climate is changing, but that significantly fewer of us do than five years ago, when 91 per cent of the British public believed this to be the case.
When it comes to opinion about who should be mainly responsible for taking action on climate change, a majority (32 per cent) think national governments should be, although that figure has dropped from 39 per cent five years ago, as has the number that think the international community should (30 per cent instead of 32 per cent).
But an increasing number of the public (16 per cent) believe industry and companies should be mainly responsible for tackling climate change. That compares to just 10 per cent five years.
"This is an interesting shift in attitude," said Professor Nick Pidgeon, from Cardiff University’s School of Psychology, who led the research team. "In 2005, not that many big companies were saying much about going green. Now lots of them are and that is probably impacting on the way the public looks at this."
Taxpayers' moneyEncouragingly for Government and business, as they face increasingly pressing climate change obligations, 65 per cent of the public says it is prepared to reduce its energy use to tackle climate change and 68 per cent says it would probably or definitely vote in favour of spending taxpayers’ money on British projects designed to tackle climate change.
In fact, most people (71 per cent) remain either fairly or very concerned about climate change. However, a significant proportion of us (40 per cent) consider the seriousness of climate change has been exaggerated.
Boredom effect
Recent media controversy surrounding climate change science likely explains this growing level of skepticism, but Pidgeon said the reasons for the drop in concern for climate change over the last five years is more complex.
"The financial crisis could be partly to blame, as people have other things to worry about. The second effect is the boredom effect, the fatigue factor," he explained.
When it comes to energy security, those polled were highly concerned that the UK will become too dependent in the future on importing energy from other countries (81 per cent) while over three-quarters (78 per cent) are concerned that electricity will become unaffordable.
Nuclear
Most people (37 per cent) strongly agree that renewable energy sources, such as solar and wind power, are a better way to tackle climate change than nuclear, but a growing number of the British public agree that the benefits of nuclear power outweigh its risks (38 per cent compared with 32 per cent in 2005).
"Whether new nuclear power, major wind farms, or encouraging people to conserve energy, we need to understand how public attitudes will impact on decisions. This new research helps us to understand how public views on these issues are changing," said Pidgeon.
The Economic and Social Research Council and the Leverhulme Trust funded the study. Its results are being presented and discussed at a meeting today at the Royal Society in London.
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