For many consumers price comes before concern for the environment when making choices. Only one-third of Britons say they will ‘pay more for my electricity’.

Separately, two-thirds (67%) say that ‘keeping my energy bills as low as possible’ is very important to them personally - rising to 76% of those aged over 55.

However, almost two-thirds of adults said they would ‘use electricity produced only from green sources’, a view shared almost equally across ages. Thus on the one hand price of energy is very important to Britons, and on the other, they are willing to embrace ‘green’ energy.

Regionally, there is very little difference in those saying that it is very important to them to keep energy bills down. However, there is a greater level of support for only using electricity from green sources in both Wales and Northern Ireland compared to the rest of the country.

	% saying it is very important to them personally to 'keep my energy bills as low as possible'	% saying they are 'prepared to use electricity produced only from green sources to ensure a more positive future'
16-24	52	62
25-34	60	63
35-44	63	67
45-54	67	63
55+	76	59
Scotland	64	63
North East	71	56
North West	71	63
Yorkshire & Humberside	71	56
East Midlands	69	57
Wales	68	77
Anglia	71	59
West Midlands	73	59
South West	62	67
London	61	61
South East	65	61
Northern Ireland	62	80

Base: UK adults by age and region, Brunswick Research

The workshops also revealed a wider set of obstacles to consumers changing their behaviour.

• Comfort – “We can’t live in a cold house – we need the heating on.” (Adult)
• Convenience – “It takes 10 minutes for whiteboards in my school to power up so teachers always leave them on all day.” (Child)
• Cost – “I had a guy come round, a few months ago… and he sat in my house for three and a half hours, gave me all this waffle about how it was going to save this, save that and save the other. All it will do is heat up my water, it is not going to cut down on my electricity use because I am still using lights, but the water would be on this solar power. I said fine, how much will it cost? Five and a half grand, I said, get out.” (Adult)
  
  “If for instance I did go out and buy a new car I probably wouldn’t buy a greener car because it would cost twice as much as a petrol driven car.”(Adult)
• Gadget culture – “My 15 year old will have the stereo on, the telly on, the DVD on and I get out of bed at 2.00am and they’re still on.” (Adult)
• Hedonism – “I can’t fly less, I like my holidays.” (Adult)
• Intangibility – “How does my small action actually make a difference to global warming?” (Adult)
• Practicality – “People won’t use their legs, because they have got wheels. You see mothers dropping off their children at school, and if they could get the car into the school door they would.” (Adult)
• Scepticism – “It’s exaggerated anyway, the earth has always had hot and cold periods.” (Adult)
• Self-justification – “We do use a lot of electricity in the house that we shouldn’t really be using, and I am guilty of that. I have outside lights on, it makes the place look nice, and truthfully I don’t think I would switch them off because they are wasting energy. It is there for me and I pay for it so I don’t see why I should switch it off.” (Adult)