Rightwing narrative fuelling false belief UK public oppose net zero, study finds | Green politics
Political elites are out of step with the public’s appetite for net zero emissions, according to an analysis that identifies right-wing media narratives as fueling a false backlash against climate action.
Media coverage of net zero is twice as likely to be negative as public attitudes and creates a false perception that net zero policies are unpopular with voters, the analysis found.
According to the analysis, this echo chamber of elite opinion has led to a situation in which MPs significantly underestimate public support for climate policies and overestimate public opposition to local clean energy infrastructure projects.
Becca Massey-Chase, head of citizen engagement at the Institute for Public Policy Research, who co-wrote the analysis, said the research showed that claims of a voter backlash against net zero were “largely a political myth”.
She said: “The British public continues to support climate action, and politicians risk fighting the wrong battle if they think otherwise. The real danger comes not from public opinion, but from elite division and media narratives that create a false sense of risk.”
The analysis, prepared jointly by IPPR, a progressive think tank, and Persuasion UK, a non-profit organization that studies influences on public opinion, noted that Britain’s increasingly assertive far right was caricatured net zero as a threat to UK sovereignty.
At the same time, a general association with progressive cultural politics places it in a category of “woke” issues such as immigration and gender, instinctively and reflexively distrusted by those on the political right, who deride net zero as incompatible with cheap energy and as an example of large-scale political planning.
Politicians from Reform UK and the Conservative Party told voters that their opposition was on the side of ordinary voters against a distrustful elite.
“The success of a populist message around Brexit, along with significant financial support from the fossil fuel industry and climate skeptics, makes it an attractive topic and approach to those on the right of British politics,” the analysis says.
Nonetheless, polls show that despite politicians’ attitudes and incessant rhetoric against it, a significant core of 40% of voters remain strongly in favor of net zero, almost double the 24% who are implacably opposed to it.
“The public is still concerned about protecting themselves and their children from the impacts of climate change,” said Sam Alvis, associate director of environment and energy security at IPPR. “In the face of these constant attacks, policymakers must work to make clean energy choices simple, affordable, and integrated into daily life. »
