Bahamas News
UK Poll reveals residents want Climate Change funding to be paid out to Smaller countries
By Dana Malcolm
Staff Writer
#UnitedKingdom, November 18, 2022 – A new opinion poll out of the UK says that most of the country’s citizens want their government to step up to the plate on climate financing for poorer countries.
Released by the Guardian on November 17th the poll shows that almost half of the UK, 49 per cent, thinks the country has a ‘responsibility to provide climate funding’. Almost half the respondents, 48 per cent, also agreed that this initial spending would be good for their country’s economy, demonstrating the long term outlook that activists
The poll comes just days after Rishi Sunak, British Prime Minister said at COP 27 that the country had a moral obligation to pay their due in climate financing. The poll was not nearly as kind to him with only 24 per cent of the public agreeing that he showed leadership on the climate crises. Sunak had initially passed on going to the global climate event in order to focus more on the economy until he received severe backlash.
Despite the calls for him to attend the event and the anticipation surrounding it the Conference of the Parties also fared poorly in the British Public’s eyes as 53 per cent of people said they did not believe it would speed up action on the climate crisis.
Proven by the extreme pushback Liz Truss, former Prime Minister received when she opened the door for fracking, an energy harvesting practice widely deemed to be detrimental to the environment, 41 per cent of respondents supported a freeze on fossil fuel developments.
The United Kingdom has pumped millions of tonnes of waste into the atmosphere and oceans including just over 550 million tonnes of CO2 equivalent between 2018 and 2019 alone.
In addition only 12.5 per cent of energy in the country comes from renewable energy. The country is now promising that it will triple climate adaptation funding with $1.5 billion put towards climate change by 2025.