A poll by YouGov reveals that a majority of UK citizens and nearly half of Conservative voters support a radical plan to tackle the climate crisis and transform the economy. There is a rapidly growing awareness amongst people regarding the gravity of the climate crisis. The poll only highlights how the public is hungry for and willing to support radical policy solutions.
The survey found that 47% of Conservative voters and 56% of the overall public back the total decarbonization of the UK economy by 2030. Meanwhile, only 16% support the government’s current goal of reaching decarbonization by 2050. Also, just under 50% support public funding to make large swathes of public transportation free for everyone in the hopes of lowering carbon emissions. The poll was commissioned by the non-party-aligned campaign group – Green New Deal UK.
As a part of its Green Industrial Revolution agenda, Labour and the Green party want the UK to hit zero carbon by 2030. The Liberal Democrats have a more distant goal, setting a target for 2045.
Aliya Yule, a co-founder of Labour for a Green New Deal, calls the upcoming elections the UK’s first “climate election.” He said:
The figures demonstrate the huge public appetite for rapid and radical government action on climate change. Not even Conservative voters support the Tories’ net zero 2050 target. They have no credibility on climate change, not even with their own supporters.
Yule campaigned for Labour to adopt the 2030 target and says that “only Labour’s Green Industrial Revolution plans – which aim to tie radical action on the environment to huge job creation and housing upgrade schemes – would address the scale of the crisis.”
A Green party spokesperson said:
A target date of 2030 has been Green party policy for years. The fact that the majority of people now support it shows how much concern about the climate emergency is accelerating, and how little support there is for the government’s policy of setting targets for mid-century and using that as an excuse to take very little action to achieve them.
In a foreshadowing of the coming election, the leaders of all the main parties were called on by student and pensioner groups to take part in a televised leaders’ debate on the climate. Boris Johnson was the only one who did not respond to the calling.
Noga Levy-Rapoport, a participant in the youth climate strikes, said:
This general election is our last chance to face up to the climate crisis. The public clearly supports the most ambitious targets to decarbonize. Parties should respond in kind by offering a Green New Deal which rapidly reduces emissions while improving living standards and expanding services like free bus travel.
A previous survey revealed that how a candidate confronts the climate emergency will influence how most people vote. Nearly two-thirds of the people who filled out the survey agreed that the climate crisis is the “biggest issue facing humankind.”
