Support for shale gas has fallen to 24%, the joint lowest level recorded so far in a quarterly survey of public attitudes by the Department of Energy and Climate Change.
Opposition, which stands at 23%, also fell in the latest survey compared with the previous quarter and is again below support. But opposition is still two percentage points above the result in December 2013, when the question was first asked.
The proportion of participants who neither opposed nor supported shale gas has risen to 49%, the highest level so far. The proportion who said Don’t Know rose slightly, from 3% in September 2014 to 4% in the most recent survey.
Awareness of shale gas has remained relatively stable since March 2014, ranging from 74-76%. The most recent survey found 75% were aware of shale gas, compared with 76% in September 2014 and 70% this time last year.
The DECC Public Attitudes Tracker has been asking questions about awareness of shale gas since June 2012 and about support and opposition since December 2014.
Field work for the latest survey was conducted between 10th December 2014 and 8th January 2015, using face-face in-home interviews in 2,119 UK households.
Categories: Opposition, Politics