Official Statistics

DESNZ Public Attitudes Tracker: Net Zero and climate change, Spring 2025, UK

Published 3 July 2025

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The DESNZ Public Attitudes Tracker 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 relating to Net Zero and climate change from the Spring 2025 wave of the Tracker, which ran from 17 March to 22 April 2025.

Notes for interpretation of findings

Differences between groups are only reported where they are statistically significant at the 95% confidence interval level.

The annual personal income referred to in the report is a self-reported measure.

The age-related findings are reported using six age groups (16-24, 25-34, 35-44, 45-54, 55-64, 65 and over). In some cases, findings across age groups have been combined to describe a general trend, for example, ‘between 78% and 88% of people aged 45 and above’ refers to the range of percentages for the three age groups 45-54, 55-64 and 65+.

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.

Awareness of Net Zero

In June 2019, the government announced a target which will require the UK to bring all greenhouse gas emissions to Net Zero by 2050. Before asking level of awareness, respondents were provided with a brief description as follows: ‘The UK government is aiming to reduce UK greenhouse gas emissions to ‘Net Zero’ by 2050. This will involve significantly reducing emissions produced by our industries, transport, food, and homes. Any remaining emissions will be balanced by actions that reduce greenhouse gases already in the atmosphere, such as planting trees’.

Figure 1.1 displays both the longer-term trends in overall awareness and knowledge (A lot/fair amount) of Net Zero (line chart) and the detailed awareness and knowledge data for the most recent two waves alongside the baseline (bar chart).

Over the longer-term, following an increase in awareness and knowledge at the start of the tracking series between Autumn 2021 and Winter 2021, levels of awareness and knowledge have remained broadly stable.

Focussing on more recent waves, overall awareness of Net Zero was slightly lower in Spring 2025 (89%) compared with Winter 2024 (91%). Knowledge of Net Zero remained stable over this time period with 52% saying they knew a lot or a fair amount.

Figure 1.1: Awareness of the concept of ‘Net Zero’ (% based on all people), Autumn 2021 to Spring 2025

NZKNOW. The UK government is aiming to reduce UK greenhouse gas emissions to ‘Net Zero’ by 2050. This will involve significantly reducing emissions produced by our industries, transport, food, and homes. Any remaining emissions will be balanced by actions that reduce greenhouse gases already in the atmosphere, such as planting trees. Before today, how much, if anything, did you know about the concept of ‘Net Zero’?

Base: All wave respondents – Autumn 2021 (5,558), Winter 2021 (3,705), Spring 2022 (4,374), Summer 2022 (4,489), Autumn 2022 (4,158), Winter 2022 (3,572), Spring 2023 (4,405), Summer 2023 (3,998), Winter 2023 (3,741), Spring 2024 (4,085), Summer 2024 (3,640), Winter 2024 (3,214), Spring 2025 (3,411) (Asked each wave)

Note: On the line chart, arrows denote a significant difference between one wave and the next. For the bar chart, significant differences are noted between Autumn 2021 and Winter 2024, and between Winter 2024 and Spring 2025.

Analysis by subgroups

Overall awareness of Net Zero was higher among the following subgroups:

  • People in age groups 35 and over: between 91% and 96% compared with between 80% and 84% in age groups from 16 to 34.
  • People with a degree: 94% compared with 79% of those with no qualifications.
  • People living in Scotland (96%) and the East of England (92%); in contrast the lowest levels were reported in the West Midlands (80%).

Self-reported knowledge of Net Zero (the percentage who said they knew a lot or a fair amount) followed a similar trend, and was higher among the following subgroups:

  • People in age groups 35 and over: between 52% and 60% compared with between 40% and 43% of those aged in age groups from 16 to 34.
  • People with a degree: 67% compared with 48% of those with another kind of qualification and 27% of those with no qualifications.
  • People living in London (63%), Scotland (62%), and the South West (58%); in contrast, the lowest levels were reported in the North West (41%) and the West Midlands (44%).

Concern about climate change

Levels of concern about climate change have decreased between Autumn 2021 and Spring 2025: overall concern has fallen from 85% to 77%. The proportion saying they were very concerned has decreased from 44% to 35% (Figure 1.2).

For more recent waves, following consistent levels of concern between Winter 2023 and Winter 2024 (80%), overall concern about climate change declined to 77% in Spring 2025. There has also been a slight increase in those saying they are not very/not at all concerned (21%, up from 19% in Winter 2024).

Figure 1.2: Concern about climate change (% based on all people), Autumn 2021 to Spring 2025

CLIMCONCERN. How concerned, if at all, are you about climate change, sometimes referred to as ‘global warming’?

Base: All wave respondents – Autumn 2021 (5,557), Winter 2021 (3,701), Spring 2022 (4,375), Summer 2022 (4,490), Autumn 2022 (4,158), Winter 2022 (3,571), Spring 2023 (4,405), Summer 2023 (3,998), Winter 2023 (3,739), Spring 2024 (4,086), Summer 2024 (3,644), Winter 2024 (3,213), Spring 2025 (3,408) (Asked each wave)

Note: On the line chart, arrows denote a significant difference between one wave and the next. For the bar chart, significant differences are noted between Autumn 2021 and Winter 2024, and between Winter 2024 and Spring 2025.

Analysis by subgroups

The proportion reporting that they were very concerned about climate change was higher among the following subgroups:

  • People with a degree: 47% compared with 30% of those with another kind of qualification, and 26% of those with no qualifications.
  • People living in London (45%) and Yorkshire and the Humber (43%); in contrast the lowest levels were reported in Wales and the West Midlands (both 28%), the North East (30%), and in the North West and Northern Ireland (both 31%).

People were most likely to say that they were not very or not at all concerned about climate change in Wales (30%), and in the North East and the West Midlands (both 29%); in contrast people were least likely to show a lack of concern in London (15%) and the South West (17%).

Over time, climate change concern has been higher for women than men, however concern has dropped more for men leading to an increased gap between the two. For example, when the time series started in Autumn 2021, 87% of women and 82% of men were concerned about climate change (reflecting a 5 percentage point difference). In Spring 2025, 82% of women and 72% of men said they were concerned (10 percentage point difference).

Further findings on Net Zero and climate change

In previous waves, questions were included on other topics relating to Net Zero and climate change. The latest findings relating to these topics can be found as follows:

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