Politician and public support for deep and rapid decarbonisation

Dr Lucas Geese (University of East Anglia) joined Dr Susie Wang (Climate Barometer) as speaker at a Tyndall Centre seminar on 15th July, asking: are public and politicians’ views becoming more polarised or not – and, if so, what might be effective responses to declining support for climate action?

Dr Lucas Geese presented work finding that UK Members of Parliament (MPs) and the public overestimated the time left to meet a critical deadline for limiting global warming and that MPs representing high-emitting constituents hardly engage in parliamentary debates on decarbonisation. This research was supported by the Economic and Social Research Council-funded Centre for Climate Change and Social Transformations (CAST) and the European Research Council-funded project The Democratic Challenges of Navigating Governance Traps (DeepDCarb).

Dr Susie Wang is the lead on Insights and Data systems at Climate Barometer, which tracks and makes sense of UK public and political opinion on climate change over time. Climate Barometer’s twice-yearly tracker shows that both the public and MPs consistently underestimate public support for renewables and local energy infrastructure, and while net zero support is lower than it was four years ago, this figure has plateaued rather than plummeted.
 
Seminar details:
"Politician and public support for deep and rapid decarbonisation”
Speakers: Dr Lucas Geese, University of East Anglia and Dr Susie Wang, Climate Barometer. Discussant: Sam Chetan-Welsh, Green Alliance. Chair: Asher Minns, Tyndall Centre.
Date: Wednesday 15th July 2026
More information, see Tyndall Centre past events