Scottish Climate Survey: main findings
Main findings from Scottish Climate Survey.
Part of
Background, aims and methodology
Introduction to the survey
The Scottish Climate Survey:
- is a survey of a representative, randomly selected sample of adults (16+) in Scotland
- uses a push-to-web methodology, allowing respondents to complete the survey online or through a postal questionnaire
- is voluntary
- is Scotland-wide
- cuts across policy areas, including heating and energy efficiency, transport, land use, climate change adaptation, just transition and biodiversity
- is wide-ranging in topics covered, including: attitudes towards climate change, experience of extreme weather events, mitigation of and adaptation to climate change, transport, home energy, diet, jobs and economic opportunities
- provides robust baseline statistics on the Scotland public’s understanding, attitudes and behaviours related to climate
Background
In 2019, the Scottish Government made a legally binding commitment to reach net zero greenhouse gas emissions by 2045 through the Climate Change (Emissions Reductions Targets) (Scotland) Bill, which amended the Climate Change (Scotland) Act 2009. Achieving this ambitious target requires a rapid and comprehensive transformation of Scotland’s economy and society. The Scottish Government has developed a wide-ranging policy framework to drive the transition to net zero, set out in the Update to the Climate Change Plan 2018-2032, published in December 2020, and in subsequent Programme for Government 2023-24. This includes strategies and interventions across key sectors such as energy, transport, heat in buildings, agriculture, land use, waste and industry.
The Scottish Government is committed to delivering a just transition to net zero, by working with communities, business, industry and Scotland’s people to plan for the country’s net zero future. In its 2021 response to the Just Transition Commission’s 2019 report the Scottish Government set out a long-term vision for achieving a fairer, greener Scotland, providing a framework against which future Just Transition Plans for high-emitting sectors will be developed. The Scottish Government’s strategic approach to just transition is also a key principle in the 2022 National Strategy for Economic Transformation (NSET), sitting across the overall vision of a wellbeing economy, and particularly the ambition of a greener Scotland in which we “demonstrate global leadership in delivering a just transition to a net zero economy”.
Since over 60% of the measures needed for Scotland to reach net zero require some level of change in the way society operates, the Scottish Government has also put public engagement at the heart of its approach to the net zero transition. Published in 2021, Scotland's Public Engagement Strategy for Climate Change emphasises the need to inform, inspire and empower individuals, communities and organisations to embrace low-carbon technologies and behaviours. In December 2023, the Heat in Buildings Public Engagement Strategic Framework was published, providing guidance on how the programme of public awareness raising around clean heat and energy efficiency will be delivered in Scotland. Meaningful dialogue with citizens is seen as essential for building and sustaining support for ambitious climate policies and for ensuring a just transition that benefits everyone.
To support this people-centred approach, policymakers require robust evidence on public attitudes, knowledge and behaviours related to climate change and the net zero transition. Existing large-scale surveys such as the Scottish Household Survey provide very useful data on high-level climate attitudes. However, there has been a lack of comprehensive, nationally representative Scottish survey data on public understanding, attitudes and behaviours covering the full breadth of energy and climate policies.
It is essential that the Scottish Government’s Energy and Climate Change Directorate monitor and evaluate progress against its multiple strategies and plans. In 2024/25 these have included publication of the 3rd Scottish National Adaptation Plan (SNAP3) in September 2024 and the National Flood Resilience Strategy in December 2024, draft Just Transition Plans for Grangemouth (November 2024) and Transport (February 2025).
In addition to the significant developments in energy and climate change policy noted above, survey fieldwork took place over a time of wider societal, political and environmental change. The aftermath of the Covid-19 pandemic, the war in Ukraine and the resulting energy market volatility had profound social and economic impacts across Scotland. Extreme weather events such as heatwaves, storms and flooding provided tangible evidence of the accelerating risks posed by climate change. The pace and direction of the net zero agenda also emerged as an issue dividing the UK’s political parties ahead of the UK General Election held on 4th July 2024, with the Labour Party’s manifesto calling for an acceleration towards net zero, while the Conservative Party manifesto focused on the costs of net zero and called for an ‘affordable and pragmatic’ transition.
Objectives
In this context, the Scottish Government, via its Centre of Expertise ClimateXChange, commissioned Ipsos to conduct a new nationally representative survey of Scottish adults aged 16 and over, fieldwork for which was carried out between October 2024 and January 2025.
The key aim of the survey is to generate reliable estimates of Scottish adults’ awareness and understanding of, and engagement with, climate change-related issues. Findings from the survey are intended to serve multiple policy and public engagement objectives in Scotland. Results will support the ongoing monitoring and evaluation of key Scottish Government strategies and plans, and will also be used to inform communications and engagement activities by the Scottish Government and its agencies. Further, the data is intended to provide a valuable resource for external stakeholders involved in climate action and public engagement, including local authorities, businesses, the third sector, researchers and community organisations. The design of the survey enables replication in the future which will allow tracking changes in public attitudes and behaviour over time.
The survey is intended to provide timely, robust and representative evidence to inform Scottish energy and climate policy, enabling the Scottish Government to track the impact of current work and tailor future programmes of work on climate change across a range of important policy areas, including: heating and energy efficiency, the built environment, transport, climate change adaptation, just transition, and biodiversity. The questionnaire covers a wide range of topics, including: attitudes towards and concerns about climate change; awareness and understanding of net zero; experience of extreme weather events; adoption of and intentions towards actions aimed at mitigating and adapting to climate change; behaviours related to transport, home energy, lifestyle and diet.
Reporting
This report of the Scottish Climate Survey results is designed to act as an introduction to the survey and to present and interpret some of the key policy-relevant results at a national level. The full dataset of survey results will be published alongside this report. Further technical information on the Scottish Climate Survey will also be published through the Technical Report. The Technical Report includes the survey questionnaire used during fieldwork and information detailing the methodology, questionnaire development process, sampling approach and fieldwork outcomes.
Methodology
The Scottish Climate Survey used a mixed-method push-to-web approach to achieve a nationally representative sample of 4,089 adults aged 16 and over in Scotland. Ipsos drew a stratified random sample of 19,340 addresses from the Postcode Address File (PAF). Sampled addresses received an invitation letter with a link to the online survey and a copy of a paper questionnaire. Up to two adults per household were invited to take part.
In total, 4,089 eligible surveys were received from 3,479 households (2,953 online and 1,136 postal surveys). The household-level response rate was 19.6% and the individual-level response rate was 13.1%[1].
Full details of the methodology are provided in the accompanying Technical Report.
Sampling and fieldwork
The sample was randomly selected from the Royal Mail’s Postcode Address File (PAF) from among all households in Scotland. The sample of addresses was unclustered within each area. Households were disproportionately sampled in remote small towns and rural areas to allow for a large enough sample size in these areas to carry out reliable subgroup analysis.
Fieldwork was conducted between 21st October 2024 and 9th January 2025. Participants received a voucher worth £5 for a retailer of their choice as a thank you for their time in taking part in the research.
Questionnaire development
The questionnaire content was developed through an iterative co-design process with the Scottish Government. An initial stakeholder workshop was held to confirm priority topics and agree on questionnaire content. Existing relevant surveys were reviewed to identify potential question items for inclusion. The questionnaire was then drafted by Ipsos and refined through rounds of feedback from the Scottish Government.
In the interest of not increasing the paper questionnaire length beyond 16 pages, and to help reduce potential drop-out rates, ten questions from the online survey were not included in the paper questionnaire.
Prior to fieldwork, cognitive testing was conducted involving 20 qualitative interviews with participants from Scotland to test the usability and understanding of the questionnaire. Findings from the cognitive testing were used to revise and inform the final questionnaire.
Weighting and data analysis
The sample was weighted to match the adult population profile of Scotland using National Records of Scotland mid-2023 population estimates and the Scotland Census 2022 data.
Since more than one respondent per household could participate in the survey, for any questions requiring a factual response the results were based on households (rather than all respondents) to avoid double counting. Questions where the base was ‘All respondents’ were weighted by age, sex, Scottish Index of Multiple Deprivation (SIMD) quintile, education, work status, rurality and tenure. For household-level questions, rim weighting by SIMD, rurality and tenure was applied.
Throughout the report, differences between sub-groups are commented upon only where these are statistically significant i.e. where we can be 95% certain that they have not occurred by chance.
Data analysis was conducted by key subgroups including demographics, geography, and other relevant characteristics. In this report, where survey results shown in charts do not sum to 100%, this may be due to computer rounding, multiple responses, or the exclusion of “don’t know” categories.
All bases exclude any not stated responses to the postal questionnaire (for example, questions that were incorrectly left blank or completed in error). If the base size for a group differs in / between questions, this is due to the exclusion of not stated responses.
This work was carried out in accordance with the requirements of the international quality standard for Market Research, ISO 20252.
[1] An estimated 8% of PAF addresses in Scotland are assumed to be non-residential (derived from the Scottish Household Survey and Scottish Crime and Justice Survey sampling assumptions). The average number of adults aged 16+ per residential household in Scotland is 1.75 (based on NRS Mid-2023 population estimates). Therefore, we used the following formulae to calculate the response rate: Household RR = number of responding households / (number of issued addresses*0.92); Individual RR = number of responses / (number of issued addresses*0.92*1.75).
Contact
Email: emily.creamer@gov.scot