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Support for renewable energy has dipped by three per cent from a peak of 85 per cent earlier this year, a government survey has found.
In the public attitudes tracker (PAT) wave 26 report by the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy (BEIS) support for renewable energy was found to be at 82 per cent in July, compared with 85 per cent in March.
Despite the drop this is an increase from the same period last year which found 77 per cent supported renewables. Meanwhile opposition to renewable energy remains very low at just four per cent, with only one per cent “strongly opposed” to it.
Support for renewables was particularly high among those living in Northern Ireland (93 per cent) and high among those with household incomes above £35,000.
A question on support for fracking was absent from the latest tracker and replaced with a question on awareness of the subject instead.
Eight in ten people (78 per cent) said they were aware of fracking while only 14 per cent claimed to “know a lot” about the subject.
The decision to omit the question about support for fracking was labelled “scandalous” by shadow business secretary, Rebecca Long-Bailey.
She tweeted: “This is scandalous as the government knows full well that there is overwhelming public opposition to fracking.”
A BEIS spokesperson said: “Following public consultation, we have amended the public attitudes tracker to reflect the department’s broadened policy portfolio following its transition from DECC [Department of Energy and Climate Change] to BEIS.
“This approach will allow us to ask more topical focused questions on areas such as consumer issues or employment rights to a wider range of respondents.”
Wave 26 included two pre-existing survey topics – renewable energy and shale gas. The remainder of the questionnaire comprised topics that were included in the survey for the first time, such as clean growth and shopping around.
The public’s awareness of “clean growth” as a concept is low, the tracker highlighted. It showed seven in ten people (71 per cent) had not heard of clean growth, while five per cent said they knew a lot or a fair amount (1 per cent and 4 per cent respectively).
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