Britain’s ‘energy wasting behaviour’ remains high

Published today, the Department of Energy and Climate Change’s (DECC) latest public attitudes tracker, which surveys more than 2,000 people, found that 67% admit to at least occasionally boiling the kettle with more water than they intend to use.

It also found that 52% leave lights on when they are not in the room and just over 50% said they leave the heating on when they go out for a few hours.

This could be due to respondents not viewing climate change and energy security as key challenges facing Britain today.

It found that only 5% saw climate change as the top challenge, while 6% cited security of energy supply as Britain’s main challenge today.

However, when asked about renewables, the results showed that support for renewable energy sources has increased to 82%, from 79%.

Support for individual renewable technologies is at similar levels to the first set of results recorded in July 2012, with 85% now supporting solar, around three-quarters supporting wave and tidal (77%) and off-shore wind (76%) and around two-thirds supporting on-shore wind (68%) and biomass (64%).

Other areas highlighted by the survey were a small rise in awareness of carbon capture and storage (CCS) and shale gas.

Awareness of CCS increased to 41%, from 36% in July last year, while 57% of those aware of the technology supported its use.

Awareness levels of shale gas have increased by 10%, from 42% to 52% since the questions were first asked in September 2012.

Leigh Stringer