Rising power costs ‘could leave us unable to pay energy bills’

 

Tom Bawden
Tuesday 16 July 2013 02:03 EDT
Comments

Your support helps us to tell the story

From reproductive rights to climate change to Big Tech, The Independent is on the ground when the story is developing. Whether it's investigating the financials of Elon Musk's pro-Trump PAC or producing our latest documentary, 'The A Word', which shines a light on the American women fighting for reproductive rights, we know how important it is to parse out the facts from the messaging.

At such a critical moment in US history, we need reporters on the ground. Your donation allows us to keep sending journalists to speak to both sides of the story.

The Independent is trusted by Americans across the entire political spectrum. And unlike many other quality news outlets, we choose not to lock Americans out of our reporting and analysis with paywalls. We believe quality journalism should be available to everyone, paid for by those who can afford it.

Your support makes all the difference.

Britons are overwhelmingly green-minded but are worried that rising energy costs could leave them unable to afford their electricity bills, a survey suggests.

Seventy-nine per cent of respondents to study by Cardiff University said they believed that the UK should reduce its reliance on fossil fuels, largely because of the environmental damage they could cause by accelerating climate change.

Between 70 per cent and 90 per cent of those surveyed said they had a “favourable opinion” of solar, wind, tidal and wave energy, depending on the technology.

Eighty-one per cent of participants wanted to reduce their energy use, again partly motivated by environmental concerns. However, 83 per cent of the 2,441 respondents said they were “fairly or very concerned that in the next 10 to 20 years electricity and gas will become unaffordable for them”.

Professor Nick Pidgeon, of Cardiff University, said: “I was surprised at how green people are. It’s a novel set of findings.”

Join our commenting forum

Join thought-provoking conversations, follow other Independent readers and see their replies

Comments

Thank you for registering

Please refresh the page or navigate to another page on the site to be automatically logged inPlease refresh your browser to be logged in