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Nuke fans, climate agnostics gain ground

Poll shows treehuggers dwindling

Climate agnostics now outnumber true believers who believe radical action is required for the first time, according to a YouGov poll.

The number of people who acknowledge scientific opinions differ has risen from 25 to 33 per cent, while the number who believe global warming is "a serious and urgent problem and radical steps must be taken NOW to prevent terrible damage being done to the planet" has fallen 10 per cent to 28 per cent over a year. The number of respondents who declare that they're "very interested" in global warming has fallen from 31 per cent in 2007 to 18 per cent.

The poll of over 4,000 Britons was commissioned by nuclear operator EDF, and it isn't hard to guess what they were fishing for. Happily for the state-owned French energy giant, they seem to have found it.

A majority support the easing of planning restrictions for building new nuclear power stations. More than half support the building of new nuclear power stations, while only six per cent agree with the statement that "the most important thing is to stop any building of nuclear power stations", and eight per cent oppose new nuclear capacity being built.

While the Conservatives promised to accelerate the building of new nuclear plants, they're reliant for a Parliamentary majority on a party which sees opposition to nuclear power as an identity issue. Still, only a third of LibDems oppose new nuclear replacing the stations being phased out. The voters may be more pragmatic than the MPs they elect.

Wind energy is still a darling, though - 72 per cent are in favour of wind farms.

EDF acquired the UK nuclear operator British Energy for €11bn last year.

You can read the detailed results from here as a pdf. ®

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