ONS figures show concern about climate change and the environment jumped nine percentage points between June and August 2026, reaching its highest level since late 2024.
Six in ten adults in Great Britain — 62 per cent — identified climate change and the environment as an important issue for the UK in August 2026, according to the Office for National Statistics’ Opinions and Lifestyle Survey. That’s up from 53 per cent in June 2026 and 59 per cent in July, and the highest figure the survey has recorded since late 2024.
The August data, collected between 5 and 30 August 2026, coincided with a period of sustained heatwaves. The Met Office provisionally declared summer 2026 the hottest summer on record for the UK, and on 29 July more than half of England was declared to be in drought, with around 40 per cent of England’s population subject to a Temporary Use Ban on water use.
Practical behaviour shifted too. The figures show that 48 per cent of adults reported using less tap water — including hosepipes in gardens — during August, compared with 36 per cent in July. And 84 per cent of adults had taken at least one action to reduce their water use in the period covered by the July survey.
On 14 August 2026, an Emergency Alert about wildfire risk was sent to people across England and Wales — a rare step that put climate-related risk directly onto millions of phones during the survey window.
The ONS is careful to note that the figures measure reported opinions and behaviour. The data does not establish that heatwaves directly caused the shift in attitudes — only that the two coincided.
What the numbers do show clearly is that concern moved in step with conditions on the ground — rising each month as temperatures climbed and water restrictions spread.
Source: @ONS