Research from the 大象传媒 Sustainability Tracker in July 2023 suggests that the environment continues to be an important topic to the UK public with 57% of people claiming it is very important to them. Just 6% rank environmental issues of low importance.
大象传媒 Audiences has commissioned regular polling of attitudes and knowledge around environmental topics, using nationally representative samples of UK adults, since March 2020. Please see the bottom of the article for further information and to download the report this article is based on.
What do audiences understand?
In this wave we have seen an increase in both the proportion of people saying they have a good understanding of environmental issues (28%), and those saying they have a good understanding of what they can do personally to help the environment (33%). Just 2% say these topics aren鈥檛 relevant to them. Alongside this, 64% of people now also say they understand the term 鈥榥et zero鈥� well 鈥� the highest we have seen since we began tracking.
That said, understanding of environmental issues is still mixed. 30% of the population say they 诲辞苍鈥檛&苍产蝉辫;have a good understanding of fundamental terms like 鈥榥et zero鈥� and 鈥榣imiting warming to 1.5 degrees鈥�, while terms such as 鈥楥OP 28鈥� and 鈥榬egenerative farming鈥� are understood by less than half of the population. Understanding is lower still across most environmental terms among lower socio-economic (C2DE) audiences.
There is also a gap between public opinion and some of the latest findings from UK conservation organisations. While over three quarters of people say nature is something we need to value and look after, and many express feeling connected to it, only 8% are believe that it is in steep decline while 40% think it is either stable or thriving (contrary to recent findings in the report which concludes that UK nature 鈥渃ontinues, overall, to decline and degrade鈥� with 16% of species threated with extinction).
What do audiences want to learn more about?
While there is appetite to better understand environmental terminology such as 鈥榮ustainable living鈥� and 鈥榬egenerative farming鈥�, we still see over a quarter of people saying they aren鈥檛 interested in learning more about any of the topics we asked about. Although the environment is an important topic to many, we clearly need to find more ways to make sustainability feel accessible and appealing. Personally relevant and positive stories about the environment continue to be of high interest to people and could provide softer ways into these topics to help drive mass appeal. Accountability remains a key theme too 鈥� with interest consistently high in knowing more about Government and business responses to climate change.
Who do audiences want to hear from?
Generally audiences think big organisations should be doing more to help the environment. 80% of people think that global corporations and governments should be doing more and, as indicated, we have also seen a rise in those who want to know more about government responses to limiting climate change. The media also has a key role to play, with the proportion of people saying they have seen sustainability content from at least one of the major broadcasters increasing above the levels seen post COP27 to 55%. There remains appetite for more content though, as two thirds still think that the UK media should be doing more to help the environment.
Download the summary report here
Note on sources: The data in this report was gathered for 大象传媒 Audiences by GfK. As such, it should be referred to as 鈥榓 poll by GfK, commissioned by 大象传媒 Audiences鈥�. Its use is intended purely to inform content development, rather than inclusion of the findings in editorial. In the event of any reporting of the information it contains in 大象传媒 content, this would be subject to the usual around the reporting of polling by third parties. For full details of all the tracker surveys, with dates and sample sizes please see the Appendix in the downloadable pdf.