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Public acting on climate change

NEARLY nine out of ten people in the UK believe they can do something to reduce global warming.

NEARLY nine out of ten people in the UK believe they can do something to reduce global warming, and many are already taking positive steps to reduce their carbon footprint. These are the key findings in our latest test of public opinion.

The survey demonstrated that a remarkable nine out of ten people (88 per cent) felt that ordinary people could change things in their everyday lives to reduce global warming.

In general, people have taken on board the generally established link between human activity and climate change, with just one person in 20 feeling that what ordinary people did in their everyday lives would have no effect on global warming. Fewer than one per cent deny the existence of global warming.
When it came to doing things to reduce carbon footprint, activity was encouragingly high -- the most common action was fitting low-energy light bulbs, with nearly three people out of four (74 per cent) doing so in the last year. Travel behaviour had clearly changed over the 12 month period, with almost two-thirds of those questioned (63 per cent) making some change. Very nearly half (47 per cent) indicated they had reduced their travelling, and more than a third (35 per cent) had increased their use of public transport. Six per cent said they had booked a carbon-neutral holiday.
Almost a third (30 per cent) have undertaken some form of home insulation in the last year (such as extra double glazing, or loft or cavity wall insulation).
Turning to energy supply, more than one in ten (11 per cent) had switched to a green energy package from their supplier. Only one per cent had taken the larger step of installing some form of energy generation such as wind turbine or solar panels.
However, fewer than half of those questioned were confident about how effective such individual action could be. Some 43 felt that 'a lot could be done', while almost as many (35 per cent) thought that 'only a little' could be achieved.
On balance, those interviewed felt their carbon footprint had reduced over the last 12 months. Nearly half (48 per cent) considered theirs to have reduced, one in four (23 per cent) felt it had stayed about the same, and 15 per cent indicated that theirs had increased.
Women showed the larger reduction overall, 53 per cent indicating a fall in the last 12 months, compared with 14 per cent an increase. Men showed a small but notable difference to this, with 43 per cent indicating a decline, compared with 17 per cent indicating an increase.
Nearly one person in ten (eight per cent) of respondents indicated that they did not know what a carbon footprint was.