Public First carried out a poll of British business leaders to understand their attitudes towards the UK Governments policy to end new North Sea oil and gas exploration licences, and the UK’s ability to phase out fossil fuels more generally.

Key Findings:

• Business leaders are confident in the UK’s ability to phase out fossil fuels by 2050 according to new sentiment analysis commissioned by Uplift.
• The majority think the oil and gas licensing ban sends a strong message about the government’s commitment to the energy transition.
• Scottish business leaders think phasing out fossil fuels will help the UK economy, despite the region’s historic links to oil and gas.

Find the polling tables here.

Methodology

Public First conducted an anonymous, online survey of 575 business leaders across the UK from 16th Aug – 28th Aug 2024, with a booster of 100 business leaders based in Scotland.

All results are weighted using iterative proportional fitting, or ‘raking’. Results are weighted by employee count and region to nationally representative proportions. Public First is a member of the British Polling Council (BPC) and abides by its rules. For more information, please contact the Public First Polling Team: polling@publicfirst.co.uk.