The recent heatwaves in the UK have fuelled public concern over extreme weather, according to a new poll conducted by YouGov on behalf of the trade body EUA (Energy and Utilities Alliance). The poll asked what they thought were the three most important environmental issues, and “extreme weather” (39 per cent) has leapt to the top of the table, overtaking “water quality in rivers ad seas” (37 per cent); “plastic waste” (33 per cent); and “overpopulation” (28 per cent) which had previously been the top three issues.

These findings suggest the debate around climate change adaptation or mitigation will heat up as the new government is formed and Whitehall budgets are examined.

Commenting on these findings, CEO of EUA Mike Foster said: 

“Our climate is changing and we are experiencing more frequent weather extremes, be that heat in the summer or flooding in the winter. We need to double-down on how we adapt to these changes. We need resilient infrastructure and public services at the heart of everything we do. It is simply unacceptable that schools have to close because classrooms are too hot, when we know air conditioning can solve the problem. The public clearly agree.

 “While current policy focuses on the 1 per cent of global emissions from the UK, with huge subsidies thrown around by government, the impact the other 99 per cent of emissions is having goes untouched. This needs rebalancing otherwise the risk is the public will reject the objective of reaching net zero and demand action is taken to deal solely with the impact of climate change.

 “We have always argued that mitigation and adaptation measures need to be adopted but the balance now seems wrong. When your home floods, you rightly want action taken to prevent it. You don’t feel better because you have subsidised heat pumps or wind turbines.

 “The public are sending a message to politicians about their priorities. The good news is that many of the concerns can be fixed with sensible and pragmatic investments in our public services and infrastructure. The bad news is that to date, some politicians prefer the virtue signalling of ‘climate leadership’ in a race that nobody else has entered.”

🔗Environmental priorities polling