Official Statistics

DESNZ Public Attitudes Tracker: Headline findings, Spring 2025, UK

Published 3 July 2025

The DESNZ Public Attitudes Tracker (PAT) is a nationally representative annual survey of adults (aged 16+) in the UK that tracks public awareness, attitudes and behaviours relating to the policies of the Department for Energy Security and Net Zero (DESNZ), such as energy and climate change. 

This report provides a summary of the headline findings from the Spring 2025 wave of the Tracker, which ran from 17 March to 22 April 2025. 

The Spring 2025 wave is the thirteenth wave in a series of surveys which began in Autumn 2021. Between Autumn 2021 and Summer 2023, surveys were conducted every quarter, although there was no data collection in Autumn 2023. From Spring 2024, the survey moved to a triannual design with waves conducted every Spring, Summer and Winter.  

Headline findings for Spring 2025 

Two summary self-reported measures are used in this report: 

• ‘Awareness’ encompasses all respondents who said they had heard of a particular concept or technology, including those who said: ‘hardly anything but I’ve heard of this’, ‘a little’, ‘a fair amount’ or ‘a lot’.  

• ‘Knowledge’ encompasses those who said that they know ‘a fair amount’ or ‘a lot’ about a topic. 

Net zero and climate change 

• Levels of concern about climate change declined from 80% in Winter 2024 to 77% in Spring 2025. Over the longer term, there has been a decline in concern from 85% at the start of the time series in Autumn 2021. 

• Overall awareness of the 2050 Net Zero target declined slightly from 91% in Winter 2024 to 89% in Spring 2025, while self-reported knowledge remained stable over the same period (52%).  Awareness is slightly higher compared to 87% at the start of the time series in Autumn 2021. 

Renewable energy 

• 80% of people supported using renewable energy like wind, solar, and biomass for electricity, fuel and heat (unchanged from Winter 2024). Over the longer-term, overall support has declined from 87% at the start of the time series in Autumn 2021, with fluctuations over time.   

• While overall support for renewable energy was high, support varied for specific types of renewable energy. At least eight in ten supported solar (86% down from 88% in Spring 2024), wave and tidal (81%) and offshore wind energy (80% down from 83%), while around seven in ten supported onshore wind (73% down from 77%) and biomass (69%). 

• Opposition levels for specific types of renewable energy remained low (less than 10%), however opposition has increased compared to Spring 2024 for solar (from 2% to 4%), offshore wind (from 3% to 5%), onshore wind (from 5% to 8%) and biomass (from 6% to 8%). 

• The majority (69%) of respondents agreed that renewable energy industries and developments provide economic benefits to the UK, however this has decreased from 74% in Spring 2024. 

• 37% of people said they would be happy for an onshore wind farm to be constructed in their local area (down from 43% in Spring 2024), while a lower proportion, 18% were opposed to this (up from 13%). Almost half (47%) said they would be happy for a solar farm to be constructed in their local area (down from 53% in Spring 2024), with opposition increasing to 14% from 9% in Spring 2024.  

• Unhappiness about a local wind farm or solar panel was highest in the East of England and in rural areas. For example, for wind farms, unhappiness was 26% in the East of England (vs 18% overall) and 28% in rural areas vs 16% in urban areas. 

• 60% were aware of Great British Energy (GBE), with 11% claiming to know a fair amount or a lot. These figures remained unchanged from Winter 2024 when this question was first introduced. 

• A new question was introduced to measure awareness of the government’s plan to generate at least 95% of electricity in Great Britain from clean sources: 83% said they were aware of the Clean Power 2030 target, while knowledge was lower with 29% saying they knew a lot or a fair amount. 

Energy infrastructure and energy security 

• Awareness and knowledge of a number of energy sources and technologies remained the same compared to Spring 2024, including carbon capture and storage (68% awareness, 20% knowledge), fusion energy (66%, 19%) and the use of hydrogen in some industrial processes (80%, 20%). 

• Awareness of small modular reactors declined to 38% in Spring 2025 from 43% in Spring 2024, while self-reported knowledge remained stable at 9%^{[footnote 1]}.   

• Overall support for carbon capture and storage remained stable at 44% in Spring 2025, while opposition increased slightly to 12% (up from 10% in Spring 2024).  

• Opposition to the construction of a nuclear power station in the local area decreased to 37% in Spring 2025 from 41% in Spring 2024. Support remained stable at 22%, and 23% said they neither support nor oppose. The primary reasons for opposition were fear over safety and security (74%), and the disposal of radioactive nuclear waste (69%).  

• Overall level of trust to provide accurate information about new and emerging energy sources was highest for scientists (83%), TV and radio documentaries (70%), charities and campaign groups (62%) and TV news (62%). Lower levels of trust were cited for the UK government and social media, however trust has increased for these two sources compared to Spring 2024 (54% up from 47% and 18% up from 15, respectively).   

Heat and energy use in the home 

• 86% of people said they were aware of the need to change the way homes and buildings are heated to reach the Net Zero target, while 39% said they knew a lot or a fair amount about this. This has remained broadly stable since Spring 2022.  

• Between Winter 2021 and Spring 2025, awareness of both air source and ground source heat pumps increased: from 71% to 79% for air source heat pumps, and from 67% to 76% for ground source heat pumps^{[footnote 2]}.  

• Among owner-occupiers, 26% said they were either likely to install an air source heat pump in the future (24%) or already owned one (2%); while 18% said they were likely to install a ground source heat pump (17%) or already owned one (1%). These measures have increased over time since Winter 2021; for example from 19% to 26% for air source heat pumps.  

• While likelihood of installing heat pumps has increased over time, there has also been a recent increase in owner-occupiers saying they are not likely to install an air source (45% up from 38%) and ground source heat pump (52% up from 43%) compared to Spring 2024. 

• 63% of owner-occupiers said they would probably or definitely install solar panels or had already done so (down from 68% in Spring 2024). The main barrier to installation was expense (63%). 

Energy bills and tariffs 

• Overall, 83% gave a lot or a fair amount of thought to energy saving behaviours (down from 87% in Spring 2024).  

• 52% said they were worried about paying energy bills, down from 58% in Spring 2024. However, energy bills continued to be ranked as the most worrying household expense (42%) when compared with other household expenses such as food (18%) and transport (8%). 

• More people expected that moving towards renewable energy sources will lead to an increase (57%) rather than a decrease (11%) in the cost of energy bills over the short term (1-2 years).  

• People were more optimistic about long term price changes (10+ years), with 41% expecting a decrease rather than an increase in energy bills (33%). However, between Spring 2023 and Spring 2025, there has been an increase in the proportion who think that the transition to renewables will lead to increased energy bills: from 42% to 57% in the short-term and from 21% to 33% in the long-term.  

Notes 

The survey is run by Verian on behalf of the Department for Energy Security and Net Zero. 

The PAT is a household self-completion survey that uses a ‘push to web’ methodology. Respondents can choose to complete the survey online or use a paper questionnaire.  

In this publication, differences between groups are only reported where they are statistically significant at the 95% confidence interval level.  

For further information about the technical details of the survey please refer to the Technical overview.

1. Fieldwork took place prior to the announcement on Sizewell C and small modular reactors (10th June 2025). ↩

2. The fieldwork period followed a DESNZ heat pump campaign in England and Wales called ‘Feel All Warm and Fuzzy Inside’ (6th March 2025), which aimed to increase heat pump adoption and applications for the Boiler Upgrade Scheme. ↩