Scots say UK government has not done enough to tackle climate change

More than 6 out of 10 (64%) of Scots feel the UK government is doing too little to tackle climate change. More than 4 in 10 (42%) said Westminster is not doing enough to support poorer countries to tackle climate change.

A YouGov/CAFOD opinion poll of 3,305 Britons found that more than 6 out of 10 (64%) Scots felt the UK government has done too little to tackle climate change over the past year. The poll is nationally representative of Great Britain and included 291 Scottish respondents.

The poll was commissioned by international development charity CAFOD, in the run up to COP27 and underlines the failure of the government to capitalise on its COP Presidency and drive forward change to tackle the climate crisis. CAFOD is the English and Welsh sister organisation of SCIAF.

Despite making a range of promises as COP President in Glasgow last year, such as promising to limit global temperature rises of 1.5 degrees and doubling finance for poorer countries to adapt to climate change, the UK government has recently pursued policies that entrench reliance on fossil fuels and risk harming the planet. 

This includes the Government announcing in October that it will be handing out over 100 oil and gas exploration licenses in the North Sea.  

Alistair Dutton, SCIAF’s Chief Executive said: 

The climate crisis is already with us. Here in the UK, we repeatedly saw more than 40^OC during the summer and even now in winter, we’ve had an exceptionally mild October in Scotland, with temperatures south of the border reaching 20 degrees last weekend. This is not normal.

But elsewhere in the world, and in the countries SCIAF works, the consequences are deadly. A devastating drought in East Africa is leaving millions on the brink of famine, and deadly floods in Pakistan have wrecked communities and taken many lives.

The UK Government’s pursuit of more oil and gas reserves will not increase supplies during this energy crisis, nor will it bring prices down.  It will, however, bring many millions of tonnes of extra carbon dioxide emissions online and drive global temperature rises higher.  It is clear the UK’s government’s knee jerk reaction to pursue more fossil fuels will cause more devastation and is against the public’s wishes.

The poll also found that Nearly half of the UK public (47%) felt the UK government is not committed to its target to achieve Net Zero by 2050 and reduce reliance on fossil fuels. 

The poll also found that more than 4 in 10 of Scots (42%) believe the government is not doing enough to support poorer countries to tackle climate change.  

Alistair added:

Developing countries have contributed very little to global greenhouse gas emissions, yet they are the ones who are suffering its consequences.

In Pakistan, hundreds of lives were lost recently to deadly floods, which destroyed swathes of communities. In Kenya, the worst drought for 40 years has seen crops and livestock decimated, leaving millions on the brink of starvation.

Public appetite for more support for these countries is ramping up pressure on both the Scottish and UK governments ahead of COP27, which will take place in Egypt on 7 November 2022.

The public also demonstrated support for using overseas aid to support farmers to grow food, with a quarter of Britons stating this should be one of the main priorities in aid spend.  

Young people aged between 18-24 in the UK expressed the strongest disappointment in the government’s performance on tackling climate change, with 68% saying the government had done too little over the past year.