Official Statistics
DESNZ Public Attitudes Tracker: Spring 2024
Findings from the triannual DESNZ Public Attitudes Tracker (PAT).
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The DESNZ Public Attitudes Tracker is a nationally representative annual survey of adults (aged 16+) in the UK that tracks public awareness, attitudes and behaviours relating to the policies of the Department for Energy Security and Net Zero (DESNZ), such as energy and climate change.
This report provides a summary of the headline findings from the Spring 2024 wave of the Tracker, which ran from 18 March to 22 April 2024.
The Spring 2024 wave is the tenth wave in a series of surveys which began in autumn 2021. Between Autumn 2021 and Summer 2023, surveys were conducted every quarter, although there was no wave in Autumn 2023. From Spring 2024, the survey moved to a triannual design with waves conducted every spring, summer and winter.
Headline findings for Spring 2024
Two summary self-reported measures are used in this report:
- ‘awareness’ encompasses all respondents who said they had heard of a particular concept or technology, including those who said ‘hardly anything but I’ve heard of this’, ‘a little’, ‘a fair amount’ or ‘a lot’
- ‘knowledge’ encompasses those who said that they know ‘a fair amount’ or ‘a lot’
Net Zero and climate change
- There has been a small increase in awareness of the concept of Net Zero: 91% of people said they had heard of the concept compared to 89% in Winter 2023. The level of knowledge also increased over this period from 50% to 53%.
- Unchanged from Winter 2023, 80% of people said they were very or fairly concerned about climate change, with 37% very concerned. However, there has been a gradual decline in levels of concern over time from Autumn 2021 when 85% were concerned.
Renewable energy
- At 84%, overall support for renewable energy has increased slightly since Winter 2023 (82%) but remains below the peak (since tracking began) of 88% in Autumn 2022. Overall opposition remained very low at 2%.
- While overall support for renewable energy was high, support varied for specific types of renewable energy developments. Support remained highest for solar (88% supported overall), followed by wave and tidal (83%) and off-shore wind (83%). Slightly lower levels of support were reported for onshore wind (77%) and biomass (70%).
- Attitudes to renewable energy remained largely consistent with Spring 2022 and 2023: 74% agreed that renewable energy developments provide economic benefits to the UK, and 82% agreed that it is important for renewable energy developments to directly benefit local communities in which they are located.
- Consistent with previous years, 43% of people were happy for an onshore wind farm to be constructed in their local area, with 13% not happy and 28% offering no opinion either way. Objection to a local wind farm was highest in the East of England (19%), the South East (17%), and in rural areas (20% compared with 12% in urban areas).
- More than half of people were accepting of local solar panel farms: 53% of people would be happy for this, 9% unhappy, and 27% offered no opinion either way. Objection to solar panel farms was higher in the East Midlands (17%), East of England (16%), and in rural areas (17% compared with 7% in urban areas).
- The main reasons for being happy about the development of local onshore wind and solar panel farms were that they would ‘provide sustainable power provision’ (wind: 77%, solar: 79%), and are ‘important for reducing emissions’ (wind: 68%, solar: 67%). The main reasons for being unhappy included concerns about the ‘impact on plant and animal life’ (wind: 56%, solar: 57%) and ‘impacts on appearance and views’ (wind: 64%, solar: 51%).
Energy infrastructure and energy security
- Awareness of fusion energy has remained unchanged from Spring 2023 at 67%, while knowledge has increased to 20% from 18%. Both measures have increased over the longer period since tracking began in autumn 2021 (62% awareness, 15% knowledge).
- There has been a decline in awareness of small modular reactors (43%, down from 51% in Autumn 2022) with a similar decline in knowledge (9%, down from 12%).
- Twice as many people opposed (41%) than supported (21%) the construction of a nuclear power station in their local area; this question was asked for the first time in Spring 2024. The primary reason for opposition was fear over safety and security (80% of all who objected to this).
- Awareness of hydrogen currently being used as a fuel in some industrial processes had increased between Spring 2022 and Spring 2024 from 75% to 80%, with a similar longer-term rise in awareness of the potential future uses of hydrogen (from 73% to 78%).
- Awareness (69%) and knowledge (20%) of carbon capture and storage remained largely stable from Spring 2023. Only 5% said they knew ‘a lot’ about this.
- Overall level of trust to provide accurate information about new and emerging energy sources was highest for scientists (82%), TV and radio documentaries (72%), charities and campaign groups (62%) and TV news (62%). Lower levels of trust were cited for the UK government (47%), newspapers and their websites (38%), with especially low levels of trust associated with social media (15%).
Heat and energy use in the home
- Awareness of the need to change the way homes and buildings are heated to reach the Net Zero target has declined slightly to 86% from 88% in Winter 2023, while knowledge levels have remained more stable over time at 39%.
- A stable 87% of people were aware of low-carbon heating systems, although knowledge of this has increased (34%, up from 31% in Winter 2023), and is now at the highest level recorded since tracking began in Autumn 2021 (25%).
- Seven in ten (68%) owner-occupiers said they would probably or definitely install solar panels or had already done so (no change since Spring 2023). A stable 23% said they would probably or definitely not install solar panels.
- The primary drivers for considering solar panels were to cut electricity bills (82%), to provide a renewable source of electricity (71%), and to reduce dependence on the national grid (52%). The main barrier to installation was expense (64%).
Energy bills and tariffs
- Overall, 87% gave ‘a lot’ or ‘a fair amount’ of thought to energy saving behaviours (no change from Spring 2023, up from 82% in Spring 2022). People ‘finding it difficult’ to get by financially were more likely to have given this a lot of thought (43%), compared with those ‘just about getting by’ (32%) or ‘doing alright’ or ‘living comfortably’ (34%) (new questions were included in Spring 2024 that asked respondents to provide a self-reported assessment of income and financial hardship to help describe patterns in the data).
- Respondents were less worried about paying energy bills than last year (58%, down from 62% in Summer 2023), although energy bills continued to be ranked as the most worrying household expense (42%) when compared with other household expenses such as food (20%) and transport (8%).
- When asked to choose from a list of actions taken in recent months because of increased energy bills, three in four people (77%) said they had taken at least one action, lower than in Spring 2023 (82%). Reducing electricity/heating usage either to a level that was still deemed comfortable (46%) or to an uncomfortable level (26%) remained the two most common cost-saving actions.
- Half (49% up from 42% in Spring 2022) expected that moving towards renewable energy sources will lead to an increase rather than a decrease (15%) in the cost of energy bills over the short term (1-2 years). People were more optimistic about long term price changes (10+ years), with 46% (down from 51% in spring 2023) expecting a decrease rather than an increase in bills (30%, up from 21% in spring 2023).
- Satisfaction with energy suppliers has improved since Spring 2023. Overall satisfaction increased for accuracy of bills (from 64% to 67%), customer service (from 59% to 65%), and being given a fair deal (from 48% to 55%).
Published 3 July 2024