Public Risk Perceptions, Climate Change and the Reframing of UK Energy Policy in Britain, 2005

The project consisted of undertaking a comprehensive empirical survey of public opinion towards future energy options for the UK, with a particular emphasis on attitudes towards nuclear power when placed in the context of climate change.<br> <br> The survey questionnaire consisted of 4 main sections. The first main section looked at climate change and nuclear power from a broad perspective, comparing these two with a range of other environmental and energy-related issues at different global/local scales. This section also examined attitudes towards various options for generating electricity. The second section specifically considered attitudes towards nuclear power. The third section examined attitudes towards climate change in more detail. Sections two and three contain a number of standardised questions that were aimed to measure general attitudes towards nuclear power and climate change, the perceived risks and benefits of the two issues, as well as questions on ambivalence, attitudinal certainty, and trust in risk regulation. In addition, the two sections contain a number of issue-specific questions. The fourth and final section of the questionnaire looked specifically at attitudes towards the reframing of nuclear power as a solution to climate change. This section contains questions that were designed to compare the risks of climate change with the risks of nuclear power, and attitudes towards different energy futures and options of electricity generation that might help to prevent climate change, using a split-sample technique.<br> <br> Although there are a range of one-off or tracker surveys and risk perception studies available that have asked about energy generation, nuclear energy, and climate change separately, the value of the current instrument is that it generates a database which allows responses to be compared across all three sets of issues. In addition there is no comparable existing survey which asks, in a comprehensive way, about the reframing question.<br>

本项目针对英国公众对于未来能源选择的态度开展了全面的实证调研，尤其聚焦于气候变化语境下公众对核电的态度。

调研问卷共包含四个主要板块。第一板块从宏观视角探讨气候变化与核电议题，将二者与不同全球/地方尺度下的一系列其他环境及能源相关议题进行对比，同时考察公众对于各类电力生产方案的态度。第二板块专门针对核电态度展开调研。第三板块则更细致地剖析公众对气候变化的态度。第二、第三板块包含若干标准化问题，旨在衡量公众对核电与气候变化的整体态度、二者的感知风险与收益，同时涵盖有关态度矛盾性、态度确定性以及风险监管信任度的相关问题；此外，这两个板块还设置了若干针对特定议题的问题。第四板块即问卷的最后一个板块，专门探讨公众将核电重新定位为气候变化解决方案的态度。该板块包含旨在对比气候变化风险与核电风险的相关问题，同时采用拆分样本技术，调研公众对于不同能源未来图景以及可助力减缓气候变化的电力生产方案的态度。

尽管目前已有一系列单独针对电力生产、核能及气候变化的一次性调研或追踪调研及风险感知研究，但本调研工具的价值在于其所构建的数据库可实现三大议题下受访者回答的跨维度对比。此外，目前尚无同类综合性调研对核电重新定位议题进行全面探讨。