Official Statistics

DESNZ Public Attitudes Tracker: Headline findings, Summer 2026, UK

Published 27 October 2026

The DESNZ Public Attitudes Tracker (PAT) is a nationally representative annual survey of adults (aged 16 and over) 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 Summer 2026 wave of the Tracker, which ran from 7 July to 12 August 2026.

The Summer 2026 wave is the seventeenth wave in a series of surveys which began in Autumn 2021. Between Autumn 2021 and Summer 2023, surveys were conducted every quarter. From Winter 2023, the survey moved to a triannual design with waves conducted every spring, summer and winter.

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 they knew: ‘hardly anything but I’ve heard of this’, ‘a little’, ‘a fair amount’, or ‘a lot’.
• ‘Knowledge’ encompasses those who said that they knew ‘a fair amount’ or ‘a lot’ about a topic.

Headline findings for Summer 2026

Net zero and climate change

• Around eight in ten people were concerned about climate change in Summer 2026 (79%). The percentage of people who were very concerned about climate change increased in the short term, from 34% in Spring 2026 to 38% in Summer 2026. Looking back over a longer time frame, levels of overall concern about climate change dropped from a high of 85% measured in Autumn 2021.
• Overall awareness of net zero increased from 89% in Spring 2026 to 91% in Summer 2026. Since Winter 2021, awareness of net zero has remained broadly stable.
• Half say they knew about net zero (50%), though this has decreased from 53% in Spring 2026. Since Winter 2021, there has been some fluctuation in knowledge but no sustained change.
• In Summer 2026, the expected short-term impact of net zero on the UK economy was more likely to be negative (39%) than positive (22%). Expectations of the long-term impact, however, remained more positive (51%) than negative (24%).
• In Summer 2026, the three personal climate change mitigation actions considered most impactful were, as in previous waves, choosing to walk or cycle instead of using a car (36%), minimising the energy used at home (36%), and installing low carbon heating systems (35%).
• In Summer 2026, nearly two in five people (37%) agreed that the UK is a global leader in tackling climate change. This is down from 39% in Winter 2025.
• Trust in the UK government to provide accurate information on climate change rose to 56% in Summer 2026, having previously fallen to 50% in Summer 2025. The Summer 2026 level is above the Summer 2022 baseline figure of 48%.

Renewable energy

• Support for renewable energy remained high in Summer 2026, with 79% supporting its use and only 4% opposing it, though support has declined from 87% in Autumn 2021.
• In Summer 2026, 36% would be happy for an onshore wind farm to be constructed in their local area. This is similar to the proportion in Spring 2025 (37%), but lower than the 43% who reported they would be happy in Spring 2022.
• In Summer 2026, 42% said they would be happy with the construction of a solar farm in their local area. While this is down from 46% in Spring 2026, the proportion who said they would be unhappy remained stable at 14%, unchanged since Spring 2025.
• When asked what type of benefits would make them more likely to support new renewable energy infrastructure in their local area, the most commonly selected benefits were energy bill discounts (62%), provision of local jobs and apprenticeships (58%), and funding for community projects such as home insulation, community facilities, and local nature projects (57%). 11% said that none of the potential benefits would make them more likely to support new renewable energy infrastructure in their local area.
• Awareness of Great British Energy (GBE) remained stable at 56% and knowledge levels also remained consistent, with 11% saying they knew a lot or a fair amount about GBE.
• Awareness of the Clean Power 2030 target also remained stable compared with Spring 2026 (both 82%). The proportion who said they knew a lot or a fair amount about this also remained stable (30%).

Energy infrastructure and energy security

• Three quarters (76%) of people are aware of the need to build new electricity network infrastructure, and nearly a quarter (22%) know a lot or a fair amount. This remains similar to previous waves.
• When asked about energy security concerns that might happen in the next 10 to 20 years, people were most concerned about steep rises in energy prices (92%), followed by over-dependence on energy from other countries (83%), more frequent power cuts (82%), and insufficient investment in alternative sources of energy (82%). Three quarters were concerned about supplies of fossil fuels not being sufficient to meet UK demand (76%).
• There was an increase in the proportion of people who gave a high or very high rating to the importance of the UK becoming self-sufficient and not buying fuel from other countries, from 69% in Summer 2025 to 78% in Summer 2026.
• Around one in ten (13%) agreed that the UK should produce less of its own oil and gas, while around six in ten (61%) disagreed, an increase from 57% in Summer 2025.
• 34% said they would support having new electricity network infrastructure built in their local area and 18% said that they would oppose this. A substantial proportion said they would neither support nor oppose this (31%). A further 17% either did not think this would be possible in their local area (8%) or said they did not know enough about it (9%).
• The most common reasons for expressing support for new local electricity network infrastructure were enabling the use of more sustainable sources of power (68%) and the need to update existing infrastructure (53%). The most common reasons for opposition included potential impacts on the view (60%) and on local wildlife (54%).

Heat and energy use in the home

• Nearly nine in ten (88%) were aware of the need to change the way homes are heated to meet net zero targets, an increase on 84% in Spring 2026, while knowledge remained stable at 39%.
• Awareness of air source and ground source heat pumps remained relatively high and stable at 78% and 72% respectively. Awareness of air-to-air heat pumps, asked about for the first time in Summer 2026, was lower at 52%.
• Among people living in owner-occupied homes, 25% said they already had or would be likely to install an air source heat pump, while 17% reported the same about a ground source heat pump. These figures remained above Winter 2021 levels but were unchanged from Spring 2026.
• Among people living in owner-occupied homes, around one in ten already had solar panels (11%) and a further 48% said they would consider installing them, down from 57% in Spring 2026.
• Among people living in owner-occupied homes who already had or would consider installing solar panels, around one in ten (8%) already had a battery to store electricity generated from solar panels, and a further 84% said they would consider installing one.

Energy bills and tariffs

• The overall attention paid to energy saving has remained stable in the short and longer term, with 82% in Summer 2026 saying that they gave this a lot or a fair amount of attention.
• Almost all people (97%) said they were aware of the most effective ways to reduce energy use, while 59% thought they knew a lot or a fair amount about them.
• Worry about the cost of energy bills decreased to 47% in Summer 2026, from 55% in Spring 2026. There was a similar decrease in the proportion saying they were very worried (17%, down from 20%). However, this appears to partly reflect a consistent seasonal pattern whereby levels of concern are lower in the summer.

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.

All resident adults aged 16 or over at each sampled address were invited to take part in the survey. In total, 3,242 individuals completed the survey: 2,719 online (84%) and 523 on paper (16%).

Weighting was used to compensate for differences in both sampling probability and response probability. The DESNZ PAT weighting matrix includes nine variables (sex, age group, highest educational qualification, working status, ethnic group, internet use, region, housing tenure, and household size).

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

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