By Sonia Elks
LONDON, Aug 12 (Thomson Reuters Foundation) - Nearly 50% of
British people plan to fly less even after the easing of
coronavirus restrictions as concerns over climate change rise,
according to survey data released on Wednesday.
Researchers at Cardiff University and the University of
Manchester said they were surprised to concern over climate
change continued to rise even at the height of the pandemic,
when the survey was conducted.
"When there are other really big threats or big issues
facing society, usually we see environmental concern take a bit
of a dip," Professor Lorraine Whitmarsh, who led the research,
told the Thomson Reuters Foundation.
"It's linked to the something called the 'finite pool of
worry' hypothesis - in other words, we've only got so much
attention we can give to things, so much worry, so we tend to
focus on whatever is most pressing.
"It does seem that maybe what we are seeing now is that
public concern about climate change has become more entrenched."
Almost three quarters of respondents said tackling climate
change required a "high" or "extremely high" level of urgency in
a survey of about 1,500 people in May, up from 62% last August.
There was also a rise in support for climate change
mitigation policies including measures to decrease meat
consumption and flying, found the research by the UK Centre for
Climate and Social Transformation (CAST).
Many reported they had made eco-friendly changes to their
lifestyles under lockdown - from reducing food waste to cutting
fashion purchases.
The majority of those surveyed said they wanted to keep
doing at least one of the changes they had made during lockdown,
with 47% saying the planned to fly less after lockdown and just
8% planning to increase flights.
Researchers called on policy makers to seize the "moment of
change" in habits under COVID-19 to build an eco-friendly
recovery and ensure that there was infrastructure to back up
green intentions.
"The temptation will be, 'actually there are loads of cheap
flights and so maybe I'll take my holiday abroad'," said
Whitmarsh, the director of CAST.
"What we need is to have consistent policy measures that
really encourage the sorts of low-carbon behaviours that people
have started to take."
(Reporting by Sonia Elks @soniaelks; Editing by Claire Cozens.
Please credit the Thomson Reuters Foundation, the charitable arm
of Thomson Reuters, that covers the lives of people around the
world who struggle to live freely or fairly. Visit http://news.trust.org)