Over half the British public said they were keen to install solar panels in a new study into renewable energy.
In the recent study, 62% of respondents said they wanted to install solar panels and 60% said they were interested in a home energy storage system similar to those produced by electric vehicle manufacturers like Tesla.
Undertaken by YouGov and commissioned by ClientEarth, the survey seeks to capture British public sentiment towards who should pay for climate change, fossil fuel investments in personal finance and what the future of Britain’s energy should look like.
Three-fifths of respondents said they would be interested in a financial institution, such as a bank account or pension fund, that considered "the climate change impacts of the companies it invests”.
More than eight out of ten respondents said they also believed that fossil fuel companies who knew about climate change and continue to lobby against taking action should be responsible in some way for the costs of major weather events.
Two-thirds thought investing in fossil fuel companies was risky long-term, and over half thought such companies could not be trusted to change their business models.
A majority - over two thirds - were also in favour of breaking up the Big Six’s market share to allow smaller, cleaner, and locally-owned energy systems to develop.
Read our feature on Tesla & the changes in the solar roofing industry here
ClientEarth CEO James Thornton said: “Making people’s homes more energy efficient is also a key way of tackling overall emissions and this poll shows that there is strong public support for doing so – the government has no excuse for dragging its feet on this.
“These results also have strong implications for business: the litigation risk for fossil fuel companies and those who invest in them is likely to grow and investors should take note – the costs of defending actions on climate change are likely to be substantial and the damages involved, should a company be required to pay, could be enormous.
“Our survey also revealed that the financial world has much work to do if they are to match consumers’ wishes. The British public said quite clearly they want their banks and pension funds to avoid investments in fossil fuel projects, and were surprised to learn that this might be the case.”
Read the full study here.
