Public concern remains high with two-thirds saying we are already feeling the effects of climate change

The latest Ipsos Political Monitor, taken 19 to 23 July, 2023 explored public attitudes towards climate change, how the government is dealing with the issue and whether Labour would do a better job.

The results found strong levels of concern among the public, although more than half still think there is time to deal with it. Yet faith in Britain’s leaders appears low. 6 in 10 think the Conservative government is doing a bad job dealing with it, yet less than three in ten think Labour would do a better job.

Concern about climate change

• Three in four Britons think climate change is a serious global threat (77%), with one in four (25%) saying it is out of control but just over half (52%) saying there is still time to deal with it.
• More generally, 77% of Britons are concerned about climate change / global warming. This is down from 84% last July (during last summer’s heatwave). However, concern is greater than ten years ago (60% in 2013).
• 41% are ‘very concerned’. Women (47%), ABC1s (46%) and graduates (50%) are the most likely groups to be ‘very concerned’.
• 23% are not concerned (up from 15% last July but down from 34% ten years ago).
• 65% think we are already feeling the effects of climate change. This is down 7 points from last July but similar to the 67% in April 2022.

• Turning specifically to the recent hot weather in Europe. 35% think this is mainly caused by climate change as a result of human activity. 47% think this was partly caused by natural weather processes and partly caused by climate change as a result of human activity. 16% say this was mainly caused by natural weather processes and 3% say they don’t know.

Faith in Britain’s leaders

• Just one in four think Rishi Sunak’s government are doing a good job dealing with climate change (26%) and 59% say they are doing a bad job. A year ago, Boris Johnson’s government registered scores of 29% good job and 55% bad job.
• However, less than three in ten think Labour would do a better job (28%), with almost half (48%) saying they’d do about the same and 15% saying they would do worse.

Gideon Skinner, Head of Political Research at Ipsos, said, “It may not be quite as high up the public’s agenda as the cost of living or the NHS, but this data shows that most Britons are still worried about the threat climate change poses to the world.

“One in 4 think it is out of control – although while still taking the threat seriously twice as many believe there is still time to deal with it.  Concern is shared across all ages, and among 2019 voters of all parties – although more intensely among Labour than Conservative ones.

“People on balance believe the costs of inaction will outweigh the costs of measures to reduce climate change, and are looking for action from government as well as individuals and businesses.  However at the moment they don’t think Rishi Sunak’s government is doing a very good job on it – although there isn’t a lot of confidence that a Labour government would do a better job either.”