Recently there has been considerable media attention on climate change and energy security, including the lead-up and the aftermath of the UN Climate Change Conference in Copenhagen, and Japan’s nuclear crisis. 

Project objectives

This project will attempt to understand more about public values and attitudes to climate change and the transformation of the energy sector. It will in particular:

• Analyse the formation of public beliefs and behaviour in relation to debates over climate change and energy security in Britain;
• Develop methodologies that will make possible the detailed study of changes in these beliefs in relation to new information that viewers and readers receive;
• Examine the sources that are typically used by audience members, and what is seen as trustworthy and credible;
• Examine potential of different types of information to produce changes in behaviour over an extended period of time.

Project outcomes

The core of this research project is to analyse the role of the media in formation of beliefs of energy security and climate change. The project's focus on public trust in different bodies in light of the increasingly diverse range of views on climate change within the media will offer an insight into the impact of different actors and the messages that they are portraying. Understanding this will be crucial for the policy and media worlds in developing strategies for changing behaviour to address climate change and energy security.

The project is in partnership with the Glasgow University Media Group and is funded but the UK Energy Research Centre.

Events

Belief, Attitude and Behaviour on Climate Change and Energy Security: Interim Findings
28 March, 2012

For more information please contact Estelle Rouhaud.