The UKERC Public Engagement Observatory maps the many different ways that people are engaging with energy, climate change and net zero on an ongoing basis. In this webinar, the Observatory team presented the findings of a major new analysis of public engagement with energy, climate change and net zero in the UK and consider implications for developing a more systemic approach to public participation and engagement. This was followed by a panel discussion involving specialists in public engagement with energy and climate change, before opening-up to wider questions and answers.
Speakers:
Jason is Professor of Environment and Society and Chair of the Science, Society and Sustainability (3S) Research Group at the University of East Anglia. He is a Co-Director of UKERC and leads the Public Engagement Observatory.
As a science and technology studies (STS) scholar and geographer, he is concerned with the changing relations between science, democracy and society, particularly in relation to energy, climate change, sustainability and emerging technologies. A key focus of his work is on remaking participation, including new approaches to mapping diverse forms of participation in these contexts.
Twitter: @jasondchilvers
Patrick is Professor of Human Geography at the University of Exeter and Director of the new £6.25m ACCESS (Advancing Capacity in Climate and Environment Social Science) leadership team for environmental social science funded by the Economic and Social Research Council. With expertise spanning Human Geography and Environmental Psychology, he conducts theoretically-driven research that aims to inform decision-making on a range of environmental challenges, notably climate change and sustainable energy transitions. Patrick’s research has been ranked in the world’s top 1% of social science according to citation of publications in 2019, 2020, 2021 and 2022.
Twitter: @PDevinewright
Claire is a facilitator, process designer and researcher with expertise in delivering participative processes which put citizens at the heart of decision making.
In 2020, in collaboration with other partners, she launched the Global Assembly on the climate and ecological crisis for COP26, which received the backing from UN Secretary General, António Guterres.
Over the past few years, she has delivered more than fifteen citizens’ deliberative processes on climate change and other topics, at all levels: from the local to the global. She was part of the facilitation team at Climate Assembly UK and Scotland’s Climate Assembly and one of the accredited researchers who observed Convention Citoyenne pour le Climat. With the Centre for Climate Change and Social Transformation (CAST) at Cardiff University in 2021, she published a comparative analysis of the French and UK assemblies and in 2023, she is working on a CAST briefing on systems change and citizens’ assemblies.
Twitter: @clmellier
Phedeas is a Senior Research Fellow at UKERC’s Public Engagement Observatory and member of the Science, Society and Sustainability (3S) Research Group at the University of East Anglia. He is an environmental social scientist conducting critically constructive research on the intersections of ecological, technological, and political change. His work closely engages with contemporary debates on the role of civil society in innovation and progress, particularly in sustainability contexts. He has developed this interest through research in three core areas: (a) publics and their roles in socio-technical transitions to a low-carbon energy system, (b) social movements and community organisations creating radical solutions to climate change and sustainable development, and (c) smart grid technologies and their impacts on everyday practices.
Twitter: @P_Stephanides