Public Engagement – July 2012 Newsletter

Recap on Rio

As the events of Rio+20 came to a close there was an overwhelming discourse regarding the continued lack of international inaction. George Monbiot’s article in the Guardian was title “After Rio, we know. Governments have given up on the planet.” The consensus is that the government’s of today have fallen short of the international administration’s of the past. The original Earth summit in 1992 left an imprint of optimism on the global environment, whereas the feeling at Rio+20 was a feeling of cynicism, according to reporter Fiona Harvey. In her article she compares the events at Rio+20 to that of the Great Gatsby.

The main outcomes from Rio+20 include a renewed commitment to sustainable development. Emphasising the importance of building a green economy to achieve sustainable development, moving beyond GDP as a measure of success for a country to include over-all well- being of the population, creating strategies for financing sustainable development and adopting a framework for sustainable consumption and production. The summit also incorporated gender equality issues, increasing voluntary commitments on sustainable development, and increasing public engagement.

It is after moments such as Rio and Durban that is easy to lose momentum, but the aggressive targets set by Scotland should give all of us within the 2020 Climate Group community a renewed sense of vigour. Knowing that we all play an integral part in a country that is leading the pursuit of protecting the planet.

Can Climate Change Policies Be Fair?

I recently attended a workshop on climate change policies. While most of the speakers focused the UK as a whole, several valuable lessons and ideas were shared. The first half of the day was dedicated to the distribution of emissions based on demographics, the second half of the day looked at progressive measures for reducing overall household emissions, keeping in mind the issues of income inequality. First to speak was Milena Buchs from the University of Southampton. Her group’s research used data gathered from the Expenditure and Food Survey and the Living Cost and Food Survey from 2006/2007 and 2008/2009, respectively.

The greatest limitation associated with this is that household expenditure does not equal emissions from consumption. I would go further to say that another limitation is the lack of attention to the reasons why people consume the way they do. Classic economics does include models for consumer preferences, but it neglects identity issues associated with the consumer and the self. Dr. Buchs found emissions from higher income households are often overestimated for certain sectors due to the consumption of higher cost goods that don’t necessarily equate to higher embodied emissions. Next to speak was Ben Anderson from the University of Essex. His research focused on water use practices determined by proxy. They explored household water use, but went beyond the standard determinants and looked at consumption of goods that require use of water, therefore increasing water consumption, this included products such as goods for bathing and goods for gardening. Following that was Sylke Schnepf, who discussed the demographic breakdown of high emitters and low emitters. They found that by adding a second adult to a household increases emissions by 90%, whereas the addition of a single child only increases emissions by 18%. Ian Gough from the London School of Economics discussed the distributional inequalities of household emissions by income. The last two speakers were Nicholas Bardsley and Ian Preston, both presenting data obtained through the use of new modelling software to estimate household emissions and discussed policy options as well as personal carbon allowances. Slides from all presenters will be made available in the next few weeks. If you would like to receive them please contact me and I will forward them to you as soon as I have them.

Methodspace - Online Research Community

There has been much discussion among researchers about the lack of a platform for open discussion of research, where everyone within the climate change community can exchange ideas and lessons learned. Now, there is Methodspace, and online community for researchers to exchange ideas. It works much like a social networking site, where you create a profile and can join groups. People have open discussions about their research, problems they are encountering and new ideas.

Going Carbon Neutral Stirling

The Going Carbon Neutral Stirling project wrapped up 4 years of research that focused heavily on engaging community organisations to motivate individual behaviour change. The project had a multitude of successes, the most impressive being the addition of bike lanes to the current road infrastructure. The cycling initiative there helped people overcome some of their concerns about the safety associated with cycling on the road with cars. The project initially took a sales approach to working with community organisations, they started with reaching out to organisations to see if one of the leaders would be willing to participate in a discussion about getting involved with the overall project. They found that participation doesn’t necessarily require the leader of the group to take the initiative, but simply an activator, someone that will spread the word within the group. They found that people want to go beyond the basics, it is time to tackle some of the more difficult tasks in reducing carbon emissions. The difficult bit of this project was engaging people in higher income areas. This group is less likely to participate in community organisations, so GCNS attempted to appeal to hyper-local ideals. Overall the initiative has engaged over 100 different community groups and has been successful in reducing local carbon emissions. Research on the initiative will soon be published and can prove to provide great lessons for other local groups looking for best practices in engaging communities in reducing carbon emissions.

Climate Change Inforgraphics

Recently I was introduced to Pinterest, a virtual bulletin board of photos organised by topic. As it turn out, there are a great number of visually engaging info-graphics on climate change and environmental issues. Below is an interesting graphic on behaviour change related to climate change. You can also search by topic, but some really engaging graphics can be found when you search for “latest infographics“.

Greener Together

The Greener Together campaign is still running and requires more of us to help share it. Please remember to pass along information about the campaign and the website.