While six in ten Britons support net zero, there is much more limited public appetite for the kinds of policies that would help achieve it
Key takeaways
- 60% of Britons support net zero
- Plurality say government is not doing enough on cutting carbon emissions, and only 2% think the government will reach net zero by 2050
- However, even among net zero supporters, backing for major carbon reduction policies is often limited
- Majority of net zero supporters say action on cost of living is a greater priority than cutting carbon emissions
The UK’s net zero by 2050 pledge forms the backbone of the nation’s commitment to tackling climate change, with the government having released its revised plan for meeting the target at the end of October.
With Keir Starmer now in Brazil for COP30 pledging to ‘double down’ in the fight against climate change, new YouGov figures show that the public continue to support the UK’s net zero commitments, with 60% saying so compared to 25% who are opposed.
Support is highest among 2024 Green voters, at 86%, with 76-79% of Labour and Lib Dem voters also in favour. With Theresa May having enshrined the net zero commitment in law as far back as 2019, the results show that almost half of Tories likewise back the target (48%), although this lower level of support is also more lukewarm, with supporting Tories predominantly saying they “tend to support” net zero rather than ‘strongly supporting’ it – and 37% are opposed.
By contrast, the majority of Reform UK voters are against net zero, with 67% opposed and only 23% in favour.
Support for net zero correlates with how people think it will affect them personally, with the large majority of those who are opposed (75%) expecting that it would leave them worse off.
Flipping the way we look at this data, we can see that among those who feel they would be worse off, 41% nevertheless support the commitment, compared to 50% who are opposed. Support rises to 72% of those who don’t think it will affect them personally, and to 94% who think they will benefit overall from net zero.
Britons don’t think the government is doing enough to meet net zero target
While there may be widespread support for net zero, the tendency is to think that the government is not doing enough to meet the target.
In terms of current efforts, 39% of Britons say the government is currently not spending or doing enough to combat climate change. Another 13% think they are getting the balance right, while 24% say too much money and effort is going into the issue.
Among net zero supporters, 57% say too little is being done.
As things currently stand, a mere 2% of Britons expect that we will actually achieve our net zero pledge. Indeed, only 18% think we will get even most of the way towards the goal – among those who support net zero, still only 28% think we will mostly or entirely achieve net zero carbon emissions by 2050.
Instead, the largest portion of the public think we will make only ‘some’ progress (47%), while one in five don’t think we will make meaningful progress at all (21%).
In practice, support for measures to tackle climate change often hinges on how likely those policies are to affect the average person
It is clear from these results that the public support the net zero goal in principle, but don’t believe we are currently on course to meet it.
But how far does support for net zero translate into willingness to take serious action on climate change?
In practice, there is much more limited public appetite for the kinds of policies that would help the UK attain net zero. When asked whether they would support a selection of policies aimed at reducing carbon emissions, for almost all of them fewer than half of those net zero supporters are willing to back them – and among the wider public, support was below 50% in each case.
The policy net zero supporters are most likely to support is making air travellers pay more in taxes the further they fly, at 57% compared to 33% opposed, while the least supported is a new tax on gas bill to encourage people to switch to electricity, at 15%.
Results from a separate YouGov survey on the subject of climate change (that did not ask about net zero, due to the survey being part of our European attitudes tracking project) likewise show the British public tend to support policies that are either largely abstract (e.g. tougher regulation on the amount of packaging for products sold online and in shops, backed by 82%) or otherwise seem unlikely to impact an average Briton (like a Frequent Flyer Levy, supported by 52%), they tend to oppose those that might affect them directly.
For instance, there is overall public opposition to: banning the production and sale of petrol and diesel cars, increasing fuel duty, a blanket increase in air fares, and limiting the amount of meat and dairy products people can buy per week.
And while 47% of net zero supporters say that spending on climate change is a priority and should be significantly increased (compared to 28% who disagree), the issue clearly plays second fiddle to the cost of living, with the majority of net zero supporters saying that keeping household bills down (56%) is a greater priority than reducing carbon emissions (33%).
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Photo: Getty
