Although just 4% of Britons believe that the climate is not changing, public scepticism towards climate policy is increasing
It’s Earth Day next Tuesday, an annual event that encourages the world to come together and demonstrate support for environmental protection, with this year’s theme being ‘our power, our planet’. But while awareness of climate change has grown since the first Earth Day in 1970, the environment has not always been at the top of the political agenda in recent months. So where do Britons stand on the key environmental questions right now?
Climate change is largely accepted as fact in Britain today, with 84% of Britons of the view that the climate is changing, relative to just 4% of Britons who believe that the climate is not changing.
However, not all of those who say the climate is changing fully accept the scientific consensus that it is changing due to human activity, with 17% of Britons saying that the climate is changing in a way unrelated to human activity. This is, though, against 67% of the public who accept the consensus that human activity is the cause.
Similarly, while more than six in ten Britons (62%) believe that concerns about the effects of climate change have not been exaggerated, there are 23% of Britons who feel they have.
In both cases, it is Reform UK voters who are the exceptions. While Green (88-90%), Labour (80-84%) and Lib Dem voters (74-79%) are largely accepting of the scientific consensus and believe that concerns are not exaggerated, six in ten Reform UK voters (61%) believe concerns have been exaggerated, while splitting 41% to 39% on whether climate change is or is not down to human activity (and 11% doubting its existence in the first place).
Conservative voters tend to be more sceptical than average, but a majority (55%) are still of the view that the climate is changing due to human activity and the 50% who say that climate concerns have not been exaggerated outnumber the 33% who believe they have.
How do Britons feel about the government’s response to climate change?
But although the public largely accept the scientific consensus, they are becoming more sceptical about government policy on climate change. In January 2020, 37% of Britons said that the environment and climate change was one of the top areas where government should increase spending, against just 10% who saw it as one of the areas of spending most deserving of cuts.
Over the last five years, enthusiasm for environmental spending has trended downwards, with 29% of Britons now seeing it as one of the areas of spending that most needs to be reduced, compared to 17% who believe it is one of the sectors where a spending increase is most necessary.
At the same time as this, the environment has slid down the issue agenda. The latest data from YouGov’s most important issues tracker shows that just 15% of Britons see it is one of the top problems facing the country. Though it has been at this level for several weeks now, it had not previously been this low since February 2019.
It is also a marked decline from November 2021, during the UK’s hosting of the COP26 climate conference, when 40% of Britons viewed it as a top issue, placing it third on the tracker.
Even among those who voted Green at last year’s general election – a party for whom the environment is their defining issue – just 51% see it as a top issue facing the country today, a noticeable contrast to 89% of Reform UK voters saying the same of immigration, arguably their defining issue. The environment is seen as one of the most important issues by 21% of Labour voters, 18% of Lib Dems, 7% of Conservatives and 5% of Reform UK voters.
Nonetheless, Britons are more positive about the government’s handling of issues around the environment than they are for most other issues, with the 27% of Britons who believe the government is doing a good job on the environment surpassed by only defence (37%) and terrorism (36%) among the issues polled.
While 49% of Britons do see the environment as being handled badly, this contrasts with 66% saying so of the NHS, 71% of immigration and 74% of the economy.
The public also tend to feel that the UK is doing more than average to meet carbon reduction goals, with 41% of Britons feeling the UK is doing more than other countries to reduce emissions (the joint highest level recorded since YouGov began asking the question), against 10% feeling the UK does less than other countries (the lowest recorded).
See all YouGov’s environment and climate change trackers here
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Photo: Getty
