In a #generalelection campaign light on policies, very little time was spent debating probably the biggest challenge of them all: the #climatecrisis.
Before the campaign began many had feared that Rishi Sunak’s climate reset speech in autumn 2023, the result of a deliberate campaign by a small but powerful anti-net-zero lobby within the #Conservativeparty, would herald an era of political polarisation over climate change. But when it came to this election, climate was the dog that didn’t bark.
To an extent, this is good news. The Conservatives’ private polling must have confirmed what public opinion research has consistently told us: there are vanishingly few votes to be won through an agenda of delaying action on #climatechange.
Concern about the climate is high and rising, across all demographics and most political affiliations. Reform voters are the exception, with many opposing the country’s #netzero target. The climate is simply not a major issue for this group, so it is unlikely to sway votes even for them. Given this situation, Tory strategists decided to downplay the climate rather than trying to fan the flames of division.
Neither, though, did Labour capitalise on it, preferring to stick to classic election issues like economic competence and #NHS waiting lists.
Although their plans for #GreatBritishEnergy, a publicly owned energy company, were in the #manifesto, they weren’t prominent in the campaign.
Even the #Greenparty, which won a record four seats, made a point of campaigning on social issues like inequality rather than focusing on the climate. The #LiberalDemocrats, meanwhile, went big on water quality as their main #environmentalissue.
In short, we can say with confidence that most people did not want to vote for an anti-climate platform. But the election didn’t test the opposite theory: would voters have rewarded a bold pro-climate message placed centre stage, encompassing not just #zerocarbon electricity, as Labour has promised by 2030, but the wider changes needed to transport, farming and land use, for example? Since this sort of debate on the net-zero transition wasn’t forthcoming during the campaign, the new government will be unsure of its mandate.
State co-ordination is necessary and popular
If the election didn’t tell us what we need to know, what can we learn from research on public attitudes to climate action? Along with academic colleagues, I have worked with representative groups of the public to debate how to meet climate goals.
There are three key lessons for politicians: understand that people want #climateaction; build trust in the government’s ability to lead the way; and involve people in the decisions that affect them.
On the first point, our research, backed by polling data, confirmed that people are deeply concerned about the climate. That’s why, as the Conservatives found to their cost, anti-climate rhetoric doesn’t win many votes.
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