This Government has chosen to put global warming at the forefront of its agenda. The Prime Minister thinks the upcoming COP26 summit is a chance to showcase ‘Global Britain’.
Where to Conservative Party members stand on the environment? According to our latest survey, somewhere in the middle.
A big majority of respondents to our most recent survey agree that climate change is happening, and a majority of them (and just under 50 per cent of all respondents) agree that human activity is driving it.
Yet on the more emotive question of whether or not there’s a ‘Climate Emergency’, we find them divided against by more than two to one.
They’re also skeptical that the Government is going to hit its self-imposed Net Zero target. Just under 47 per cent of party members think the Government “is not on track” to hit the 2050 deadline, versus fewer than 24 per cent who believe it will (fewer than the just under 30 per cent who “don’t know”).
All together, this suggests that there is a strong base of support for interventions to help tackle climate change – but not for the sort of radical, anti-growth measures advocated by groups such as Extinction Rebellion. It would be interesting to see their views on the ‘carbon tax’ on imported meat being proposed by George Eustice.