Graph of the Day: Women prefer solar, old men like nuclear

Today’s graph of the day comes courtesy of The Climate Institute, and its new publication, Climate of the Nation. The results are from a poll of 1,009 Australians (over 18) taken in the first week of June.

Solar and wind are by far the most popular, and wind gained the most support from the previous year, jumping from 59 per cent to 67 per cent. Coal and nuclear were the least popular, with nuclear falling from 20 per cent to 13 per cent. No fossil fuel gained more than 28 per cent approval, and geothermal and ocean energy have yet to capture the imagination.

But while this graph is self explanatory, there were some interesting findings along gender lines.

The Climate Institute said the poll found that solar and wind were both more popular among women than men. Indeed 93 per cent of women voted for solar among their top three preferred energy sources, compared to 80 per cent of men. A similar difference was detected in wind, which attracted 73 per cent support from woman and 60 per cent support from men.

The other big variation along gender lines was for nuclear, which got a vote from 22 per cent of men and just 5 per cent of women. Nuclear gained most approval among older men, but not at all by the younger generation.

Geothermal energy also seemed to be a man-thing, with 28 per cent of men nominating the technology, but only 19 per cent of women.

Wind energy, incidentally, was more popular in regional areas (70 per cent) than it was in the cities (65 per cent).

The other interesting graph was this one below, which will come as a crushing disappointment to the Coalition hardliners who think that a campaign against renewable energy sources might be a popular thing. Nearly half of those surveyed reckoned the renewable energy target should be higher than its current minimum level of 20 per cent, a further 29 per cent believed the target was about right and only 9 per cent thought it should be lower.