Climate change in the UK is both personal and political

Climate impacts increasingly affect UK residents and the demands of voters. This project shows that climate change is a personal issue for people in the UK, and political actors need to respond to how different places and demographics are affected differently. As climate change increasingly becomes a personal and political priority for UK voters - with 54% of voters in 2019 saying climate change would impact their voting decision, up to 74% in the 18-25 age group - this project proposes a tool to view local climate impacts alongside the voting records and sociodemographic variables in different regions.


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Climate Risk Snapshots

Rising temperature


Like Barcelona

Sinking island


Sinking

Food security


Met warning

The UK’s main climate risks are heat, flooding, drought, and food security. The impacts in the UK have already been felt.

Our Manifestos - 1.5C Target

Con

Conservatives - We will lead the global fight against climate change by delivering on our world-leading target of Net Zero greenhouse gas emissions by 2050, as advised by the independent Committee on Climate Change.

Labour

Labour - We will develop the recommendations of our ‘30 by 2030’ report to put the UK on track for a net-zero-carbon energy system within the 2030s – and go faster if credible pathways can be found.

SNP

SNP - We will develop the recommendations of our ‘30 by 2030’ report to put the UK on track for a net-zero-carbon energy system within the 2030s – and go faster if credible pathways can be found.

Green

Green Party - We will develop the recommendations of our ‘30 by 2030’ report to put the UK on track for a net-zero-carbon energy system within the 2030s – and go faster if credible pathways can be found.

UK General Election 2019


This is just a prototype image. We propose an interactive tool where percentage of voters, different sociodemographic variables, climate impacts and danger threshold are crossed, threats to human life, property and living environments, can be compared with one another within a visualisation. This allows for the separation of different dimensions of climate change and their differential impacts on people - and allows for exploration of a number of important political questions.

Important questions to ask


This tool can inspire exploration of multiple questions:

1) Are projected climate impacts in the UK likely to encourage voters to switch to supporting parties that are more active on climate mitigation and adaptation?
2) Are UK climate impacts divided along the same lines as voter bases?
3) Which climate adaptation and mitigation strategies do voters support?