People think drastic action is needed now
New polling has revealed that the British public think that urgent, immediate action is needed to address the climate crisis.
YouGov has polled the public on attitudes to the climate crisis as the COP29 climate negotiations are taking place in Azerbaijan.
The polling firm asked whether it is too late to avoid the worst effects of climate change. The public appear to be more pessimistic about the world’s prospects in this regard than they were when YouGov asked the same question in 2019. Now, 17 per cent of the public say it is too late (up six points on 2019).
However, the poll also found that the overwhelming majority of the public do think the worst effects of climate change can be averted (68 per cent). Of these, the bulk believe that more drastic action is needed.
Just 11 per cent of people think that the current approach taken on climate will be sufficient. By contrast, 57 per cent think drastic changes are needed now.
This suggests there would be broad public support for more radical action in the UK to address the climate crisis.
Despite this, the polling revealed more nuanced attitudes among the public. Just 34 per cent think that the government should increase spending on addressing the climate crisis if it were to lead to reducing spending in other areas. That’s compared to 39 per cent who say there are more urgent priorities than climate change and we need to focus on these areas above spending on climate change.
Chris Jarvis is head of strategy and development at Left Foot Forward
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