Northern Ireland public supports renewable energy development – but doesn’t think net zero targets will be met
1st Oct 2024
Four out of five people in Northern Ireland would support new onshore and offshore wind, solar and hydro energy projects being developed in the area they live in, according to research conducted by communications consultancy Cavendish Consulting.
In a survey of 1,050 people across Northern Ireland carried out by Lucid Talk on behalf of Cavendish Consulting for its report Northern Ireland and the Future of Energy, 93% of respondents said they would support new solar energy developments in their area, while 88% of people said they would support new offshore wind projects.
With the need to achieve net zero and energy security a key priority for the Northern Ireland Executive, the survey indicates broad public support for low carbon energy sources, with the four primary renewable energy categories drawing stronger support in Northern Ireland than in a similar survey undertaken by Cavendish in Great Britain in March this year.
However, the research also showed that only 11% of those polled believe the NI Executive’s net zero targets will be reached and 47% of people only want government to pursue net zero policies if doing so doesn’t have a negative impact on their own household finances.
Paul McErlean, Managing Director of Cavendish Ireland, said: “The Department for the Economy has made achieving net zero by 2050 and growing the green economy one of its four key strategic priorities. This research shows there is huge public backing in Northern Ireland to deliver new renewable energy projects.
“However, at a time of high energy costs and squeezed household finances, it’s also clear that a lot of people don’t want the transition to net zero to come at a cost to them. If the sector is going to win public support, they’ll need to present a strong and clear economic case and demonstrate the significant benefits that reaching net zero will deliver.”
While the public may be sceptical about reaching net zero, Cavendish’s research found that there are high levels of support for development of projects in each of the four main renewable energy categories which exceeded levels of public support recorded in GB.
There was overall support for onshore wind (81%), offshore wind (88%), tidal/hydro (88%) and solar in NI (93%), with two thirds of people saying they ‘strongly support’ offshore wind, tidal and solar.
Overall support for hydrogen energy project development was also higher than in GB (64% vs 48%) although only 27% said they strongly support hydrogen, suggesting more education is needed by hydrogen providers.
Nuclear power was in the bottom three in terms of public support in all parts of Northern Ireland and is the only energy source where the opposition outweighed support (41% net support vs 47% net opposition).
You can read the full report here
