British Public Opposition to Shale Gas on the Rise, Says Nottingham University

British public support to shale gas continues to wane, with the indicator designed by the University of Nottingham falling from +26.3% in September to 22.7%. 

The results of the long-running survey on UK’s attitudes towards unconventional gas suggest that local opposition grows, despite the attempts of the British government to increase the interests at stake. The indicator was +33.4% in July 2013.

“This suggests that the turn against fracking indicated in September was not a blip and may represent an increasing sense of unease with the environmental implications of fracking techniques amongst the UK public,” Professor Sarah O’Hara, from the University’s School of Geography, commented in a note released on Wednesday.

O’Hara, who led the study along with Professor Matthew Humphrey from the School of Political and International Relations, added that community benefits could be not the ideal instruments to convince population.

“The public are not convinced that the payment of compensation to communities in areas where fracking will take place represents a community benefit, but more an attempt to get the community’s support for fracking in their area, which may signal that payments such as these could be seen as a means of buying off potential opposition. In which case, this is a strategy in need of review,” O’Hara commented in the press release.

According to the University of Nottingham, the January survey is the largest survey undertaken so far, with 3,751 respondents interviewed between 22 and 24 January.