There is also a lot of confusion around green issues (which mirrors the findings among adults presented later in this report). Although there is an absolute awareness of global warming, and a sense that future sources of energy will look a lot different from those of today, an actual definition of ‘green energy’ is still somewhat elusive.

Q. How would you describe green energy?   (Spontaneous top mentions)
Base: All UK children aged 7-16 (524), Brunswick Research

E.ON view

When children were asked how they would describe green energy they had little or no idea – 59% of them were unable to come up with suitable words. This was despite the fact that climate change was of huge importance to them. This was also despite the fact that energy is right at the top of the nation’s agenda, with wind farms and new power stations appearing in the UK media on an almost daily basis.

It would appear that what we’ve managed to do is to raise questions in children’s minds but we haven’t really supplied any answers. And, in many ways, that is the state that we, as a nation, are in. There is no silver bullet to beat climate change. What we must do is take on board all technologies currently available to us – renewables, cleaner coal, gas, nuclear, marine – and work to create new ways of producing power. Alongside that, we also need consumers to cut their power and gas usage by becoming more energy efficient.  

In answer to the question 'Name a green technology' we really need people to be able to say 'they all are'.