Event

Universities are increasingly being challenged to show leadership in responding to and addressing climate change. Staff, students and the wider UEA community are already attempting to address some of these challenges on their own terms. However, universities have wider untapped potential to move beyond a siloed approach to decision-making and address the many social and environmental challenges we face today.  What if everyone at UEA had more of a say on how the university is run and what it stands for? 

The UK Energy Research Centre’s (UKERC) Public Engagement Observatory have teamed-up with UEA’s Biodiversity and Climate Action Network (BCAN) and Faculty for a Future (F4F) to hold a People’s Assembly that aims to create a vision, provide recommendations, and catalyse action to help make UEA fit for a climate-changed future.

Professor Jason Chilvers, lead of UKERC’s Public Engagement Observatory said: 

“Citizens’ assemblies are now happening throughout the world, empowering citizens to learn about, deliberate and have a say on how we should address pressing issues, such as climate change. We in the Public Engagement Observatory are delighted to collaborate with F4F and BCAN to explore what difference these democratic innovations can make at UEA. I hope the people of UEA and of the local community will take this opportunity to get involved, that the recommendations of the assembly are listened to, and it helps catalyse changes we so urgently need.”   

Following two successful assembly sessions in Spring 2024 where a broad range of participants from across the UEA and the local community mapped the multiple and diverse ways in which we already engage with climate change and collaboratively developed visions for making UEA fit for a climate-changed future, we now invite you to a follow-up People’s Assembly session where we will:

• Present and evaluate the visions emerging using the innovative Distributed Deliberative Mappingg method developed by the Observatory, and
• Forge concrete action plans for delivering the preferred vision for the future.  

The People’s Assembly session will take place on Thursday 6th June 2024, Council Chamber, Arts & Humanities Building UEA, 16:00 – 19:00, and everyone is welcome.  

Free vegan and vegetarian food and refreshments will be available to all participants.  

Advance registration via Eventbrite recommended: https://www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/peoples-assembly-making-uea-fit-for-a-climate-changed-world-tickets-901324224017?aff=oddtdtcreator