Three quarters of people ‘have made changes’ to help tackle climate crisis

Three-quarters of people have made “a lot” or “some” changes to help tackle the worsening climate crisis, a new survey has found.

The poll published by the Office of National Statistics addresssed the recent extreme heat recorded in the UK as well as concern and action around the climate emergency.

Its results show that 75 per cent of the population are worried or very worried about the impact of climate breakdown, around one in five people said their leisure activities were affected by the heatwave, and around one in seven said their general health had been impacted. More than half said they had not been affected.

The survey aims to assess the opinions and social trends among British people and the responses cover the period 3-14 August.

It broadly mirrors previous polling and comes after a survey last month conducted by the European and Climate Intelligence Unit, which supports informed debate on energy and the climate crisis, found that three-quarters of people in Britain are worried about climate breakdown and want more government action to tackle it.

A separate poll published by The Independent found that nearly 70 per cent of people said the UK’s record-breaking July heatwave had convinced them more needs to be done to tackle global heating. But it also found that many remain unpersuaded to take personal action.

Last month, the UK recorded its highest temperature on record with Coninsby in Lincolnshire measuring 40.3C on 19 July. That heatwave was followed by another this month and drought has been declared across swathes of England and parts of Wales.

Climate scientists have warned that summers marked by more extreme heat, droughts and wildfires will only get worse as humans continue to pump-out planet-heating greenhouse gas emissions, mainly by burning fossil fuels.

Even if humanity stops emitting greenhouse gases tomorrow, scientists say the extreme weather conditions experienced by people across the world would not improve unless a lot of carbon was removed from the atmosphere.