New organisation established to support informed debate on energy and climate change issues
Wed 27 August 2014
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A new body, the Energy and Climate Intelligence Unit has recently been launched in the UK to support informed debate on energy and climate change issues in the UK..
The ECIU, a not-for-profit organisation, will be supporting journalists and other communicators with accurate and accessible briefings on key issues, and working with individuals and organisations that have interesting stories to tell, helping them to get more involved in the national conversation.
To announce its arrival the ECIU has issued a news story based on a survey showing some significant misconceptions that the UK public hold on energy and climate issues. The survey shows that only one in nine (11 percent) of people are aware of the strength of the scientific consensus on man-made climate change, a finding that the ECIU says carries ‘uncomfortable echoes’ of the MMR controversy of 15 years ago.
Nearly half of the UK population (47 percent) think either that most climate scientists reject the idea that human activities such as fossil fuel burning are the main driver of climate change (11 percent), or that scientists are evenly split on the issue (35 percent). Several recent studies show, however, that more than 90% of climate scientists agree that the main cause of climate change is human activity.
Amongst other misconceptions the survey shows that only one in nine people are aware of the strength of the scientific consensus on man-made climate change and only one in twenty know that renewables such as solar and wind are supported by a significant majority (about 80 percent) of the UK population.
For more information, visit the ECIU website.
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