Climate groups call for better public engagement to prevent UK backlash

UK Prime Minister Rishi Sunak’s decision to water down key green measures ahead of next year’s general election has sparked renewed calls for greater public engagement.

Experts fear that without an informed and engaged public, climate policies could increasingly face a backlash, leading to costly adjustments and wasted resources.

A report published earlier this month by the UPPER coalition – made up of environmental organisations including Climate Outreach, Involve, Ashden, and the Climate Citizens initiative at Lancaster University – calls for the UK government to create a public engagement strategy and says that this should be led by the Secretary of State for Energy Security and Net Zero and prioritised alongside policy development and regulation.

Among the policy changes Sunak announced last week were pushing the ban on purchasing new petrol and diesel cars from 2030 to 2035 and delaying the target of eliminating gas boilers.

He also ruled out several “proposals” which he claimed have been floated such as new taxes to discourage flying and on eating meat, measures to encourage car pooling, and recycling schemes requiring “seven different bins”. Critics have noted that these proposals were not part of government policy.

Sunak said he remained committed to reaching net zero by 2050 but that the changes would “ease the burden on working people”.

Ashden CEO Ashok Sinha told Cities Today: “The Government should be engaging people about how net-zero policies will create new jobs, boost our economy and create a more inclusive society – things we all benefit from. But its recent U-turns and negative rhetoric send the opposite message.

“Instead of caving into political short-termism, the Government should work with communities to deliver a just and fair transition that addresses people’s legitimate concerns.”

The UPPER coalition says that while one in four Britons sees the environment as an important issue for the country – up by 13 percentage points since July – there is “increasing division” among the population and political parties about the necessary policy and behavioural changes needed for the country to reach net zero. The group cites disagreements about the rollout of the Ultra Low Emissions Zone in London and alternative forms of domestic heating such as heat pumps as further cases in point.

National strategy, local model

The report calls for a national strategy with a regional and local delivery model. It says sector-specific strategies are required and recommends that the government convenes a working group to measure the impact of public engagement.

The coalition also stressed that climate projects should be co-designed by a diverse range of people, stating: “This is particularly true where behaviour change meets climate-critical but culturally loaded issues like whether and how people travel, heat their homes, or what they eat. People’s ability to change is also hugely affected by private and public resources available to them.”

UK case studies highlighted in the report include Camden’s Think & Do programme, which set up community hubs in housing estates to engage people in climate action and offer workshops. Kendal Town Council set up Kendal’s Climate Jury, which led to the implementation of a range of recommendations in areas including energy generation, transport, and food.

Strategy Room pilot

Nesta is also calling for greater public engagement after a pilot by the innovation charity found that new approaches can build support for local action.

Nesta conducted a pilot project earlier this year called the Strategy Room, which used videos with actors to help participants imagine scenarios in which their local councils implemented carbon-reducing policies related to heating, travel, and food.

Participants then discussed the positive and negative effects of these policies and rated them using interactive software on iPads.

Designed with immersive theatre company Fast Familiar and UCL’s Climate Action Unit, the Strategy Room was partly inspired by World Without Oil, says Kathy Peach, director of the Centre for Collective Intelligence Design at Nesta. The online game was launched in 2007 by Ken Eklund as a collaborative, online storytelling experience to engage participants in exploring the possible consequences if the world ran out of oil.

“I wanted to think about how we can take some of those principles of collective imagination and engagement through digital technologies and apply it to public engagement on climate change in the UK,” Peach told Cities Today.

The pilot involved 630 participants across 12 local authorities in England. The findings showed that participants who engaged in discussions within the Strategy Room were more positive about net-zero policies compared to respondents in an online poll. Measures discussed included adding more electric vehicle charging points, implementing insulation and heat pumps in social housing, and requiring supermarket chains to publish environmental ratings.

On average, participants rated the policies 12 percent higher than those in the poll. The quality of the debate was also linked to higher satisfaction with the recommendations, Nesta said.

Peach said the approach could also help councils address potential misinformation and misunderstanding about climate policies.

“What we found in the sessions is that someone might have heard something that maybe wasn’t true. And often other participants in the room would say: ‘No, actually, that’s not right’.

“There is something about the importance of that social learning – people learning from others who are in the same boat as them.”

She added: “I think that most people are now moving to a place where actually concern for climate is quite high. And what we need to get right now is involving people and understanding how we can achieve some of these goals and targets in as fair a way as possible and in a way that really maximises the benefits to everyone. I think that’s what most people want.”

Citizen Participation Service

Another finding from the pilot was that rankings for different policies varied between areas.

“That’s really significant for councils because it means you can’t just rely on national polling as a guide,” Peach said. “It really speaks to the importance of local councils being able to go out and engage their residents to understand what will work for them in their particular area and that might be different from the council next door.”

Nesta is calling for the creation of a Citizen Participation Service within the Department for Energy Security and Net Zero. This service would aim to engage people in climate change policymaking, build community links, and mitigate potential public backlash against net-zero policies.

Nesta is now making the Strategy Room available to UK councils nationally.

It can be run in one session of less than two hours and the data captured is available on a public platform to enable a national aggregated picture and comparison between areas.