Core Project
Public health messaging on health and climate change: the potential for a children focus
Background
Most adults are concerned about climate change, an exposure that is an increasing risk to the UK. Harnessing public concern about climate change through a focus on the health impacts of climate change is often advocated as a way of increasing its ‘issue salience’ (how important the public considers it to be) and therefore helping to build public support for climate policies. However, our earlier PH-PRU project* found little evidence that the public were particularly concerned about the health impacts of climate change or that they identified health as a priority for climate policies. Instead, their major concerns and policy priorities focused on climate change’s impacts on the essential resources on which everyone relies, like food and water, and on animals and nature. Children also featured among their concerns and priorities, particularly among parents. The aims of this 4-month project are to investigate:
Aims
- The potential for engaging the public in climate change and climate policy through a focus on children and child health.
- The climate change concerns and policy priorities of parents.
Methods
The project was informed by our earlier PH-PRU project’s community-based public involvement and a scoping review of qualitative studies of parents’ concerns about climate change.
Building on these inputs, we drew on two surveys conducted for our earlier project (October/November 2023, n=2016; March 2024, n=1004) and a further survey conducted in August 2024 (n=1023). Survey participants were adults living in the UK aged ≥18 and over. Quotas were set to match the UK population for age group, gender, ethnic group, educational attainment, and region/country of residence. Additionally, we included a question on parental status: ‘Are you the parent/guardian of a child/children (including those over the age of 18)?’
The surveys asked about people’s climate change concerns, including concerns for children and children’s health, and their priorities for climate policies, again including children and children’s health. Informed by earlier studies, we also asked about participants’ intergenerational time preferences for climate policies to save lives in the UK (their preferences for the distribution of policy benefits across their, their children’s and their grandchildren’s generation).
*Informing public health messaging on health and climate change
Outcomes
In line with our earlier project*, we found that health is not among the public’s top concerns about climate change or among their top priorities for climate policies.
We added to this finding by providing evidence that a focus on children and children’s health (‘children’s physical health and mental wellbeing’) did not significantly change this picture. The top climate change concerns and policy priorities again related to the essential resources on which everyone relies, like food and water, and to animals and nature.
For example, in the survey that included impacts on ‘health and wellbeing’ among the potential priorities for polices to address, 14% selected it as their top policy priority. In the separate surveys which included impacts of climate change on ‘children’ and on ‘children’s physical health and mental wellbeing’, 10% selected children and 14% selected children’s health and wellbeing as their top policy priority. In contrast, across all the surveys, a large majority selected either essential resources or animals and nature. For example, in our most recent survey (Aug 2024), the proportions were around 50% and 25% respectively.
The climate change concerns and policy priorities of parents
The evidence from our project points to differences in the climate
change concerns and policy preferences of parents and non-parents.
Compared to non-parents, parents were significantly more concerned about
climate change – and significantly more concerned about the impact of
climate change on children and future generations. Parents were also
significantly more likely to select children/children’s health as their
top priority for climate policies – although, as for non-parents, their
primary concerns and policy priorities related to essential resources
and to animals and nature.
Our project also suggests that the public have strong ‘intergenerational time preferences’ with respect to climate policies. Only a minority of survey participants preferred policies from which their generation would benefit most. A large majority (65%) selected a policy option that would bring greater benefits to children and future generations than to their generation. This preference was particularly marked among parents.
In conclusion
Our project confirms that UK adults are concerned about climate
change. However, health is not a major focus of their concerns or among
their priorities for climate policies. Changing the focus to children
and to children’s health does not change this overall finding. In line
with our earlier project, this project again underlines the importance
that the public attaches to climate change’s impacts on essential
resources like food and water and on animals and nature.
Our project also provides suggestive evidence that parents represent a key constituency among the general public with respect to climate change policies. It is a large constituency. Most adults become parents, and non-parents are typically younger adults, the majority of whom are likely to become parents as they move through adulthood. Additionally, parents tend to have greater concerns around climate change and have stronger preferences for policies that benefit children and future generations over the current generation of adults. Currently, the parental voice on climate change is represented via voluntary sector. Actively engaging with this constituency at local and national government level could provide a springboard for turning public concerns about climate change into policy action.