Britons ‘won’t change to fight global warming’
Updated on 10 December 2009
Most Britons are not prepared to change their lifestyle to help combat climate change, according to a YouGov/Channel 4 News survey of more than 2,000 adults, as the Copenhagen summit on climate change gets underway.
Nor do they want to open Britain’s doors to migrants who have to find a new home because climate change devastates their own country.
Past surveys have found that most people accept that climate change is underway, and needs to be tackled. YouGov’s latest figures suggest, however, that clear majorities think other people should bear the brunt of change.
Not one single respondent says they have stopped, or will stop, eating meat in order to help combat climate change, even when they are reminded that the United Nations says that meat production generates significant amounts of carbon in the atmosphere.
One in four say they will eat less meat, or already do so; but 64 per cent say they will not change their behaviour at all.
That 64 per cent may understate the true figure: past experience shows that when people are asked to predict their own behaviour, some tend to bias their response towards the more virtuous answers.
So we asked respondents what they expected “people you know well” to do. This can be a better predictor of future behaviour; and fully 81 per cent expect their friends to carry on eat meat as normal.
Equally, only 11 per cent of 18-34 year-olds say they are prepared to have fewer, or no, children in order to combat change – a figure that falls to just 6 per cent when the same respondents are asked about “people you know well”.
And a mere 2 per cent say they will stop taking foreign holidays be plane (one per cent when asked about their friends).
Asked about possible future “climate migration” by people forced by global warming to leave their homes, just 5 per cent think they should be allowed to come to Britain. A further 32 per cent would accept strictly limited migration to Britain.
But 55 per cent either want to bar such migrants completely (35 per cent) or don’t accept that such migration will happen (20 per cent).
To download the poll results, click here.
