Public Risk Perceptions, Climate Change and Reframing of UK Energy Policy

• Start date: 05 August 2005
• End date: 04 June 2006

The international community has become increasingly aware that action is needed to address climate change. Against this policy background it can be argued that the UK is currently witnessing a reframing of political debate around the construction of new nuclear energy generation capacity as one element of the means of delivering on climate change mitigation. However, citizen perceptions and views are also likely to be critical to future public acceptance of any energy policy which includes a new nuclear element.

The objective of this project is to understand how citizens respond to this reframing of energy policy. This will be achieved through a major quantitative survey administered by the market research company MORI in 2005, using a representative sample of 1500 respondents drawn from across the UK. The survey will explore: perceived risks and benefits of climate change and nuclear energy; attitudes to other forms of energy generation; and the acceptability or otherwise of nuclear energy and different energy futures when contextualized in terms of the issue of climate change. The survey is being conducted in collaboration with the Tyndall Centre for Climate Change Research.