A team of climate scientists at Lancaster University is helping to inform and shape environmental policy at national, local council, and community level across the UK.

The Climate Citizens Research Group, based at Lancaster Environment Centre (LEC), is working towards a future where public deliberation and widespread engagement is normalised within climate policy making.

Led by Professor of Energy and Climate Governance Rebecca Willis, the group has recently been joined by visiting fellows to develop collaborations between academics and practitioners, as well as ideas on how to engage people on climate issues.

Its aim is to transform climate policy from something that happens to people, to something that happens with people.

The group also includes senior research associate Dr Jake Ainscough, PhD researchers Rachel Coxcoon and Pancho Lewis, and visiting fellows Elisa Minsart, Karolina Trdlicova, Lucy Farrow, Steve Westlake, Bea Natzler and David Evans.

David is the Principle Behavioural Change and Engagement Officer at Birmingham City Council’s newly formed Route to Net Zero team.

Tasked with delivering the council’s ambition to transition Birmingham to Net Zero by 2030, David’s role is focused on working with residents and organisations across the city to accelerate action.

He said: “The fellowship with Climate Citizens team at LEC has been immensely helpful in expanding my understanding of Climate Assemblies and other democratic innovations happening in the climate space.”

“Having space to discuss academic debates on the climate democracy and being able to share my current work at the council with the experienced team has dramatically shaped my work at Birmingham.

“Specifically, the monthly reading group has provided an outlet to dive a bit deeper into topics, whilst the work in progress updates from the team and the monthly guest lecturers who come to speak to the group have also greatly expanded my awareness of what’s happing in this space.”

David, who intends for his findings to be replicated by other councils, said his team is currently scoping out the best way to democratically engage citizens in its climate change programme.

“Like many local authorities, we’ve struggled in the past to run events that go beyond engaging the ‘usual suspects’ and achieve real involvement of our diverse communities in climate policy making,” he said.

“The UK’s transition to Net Zero will require some big changes to people’s lives and our city.

“As a council, it’s critical that we involve citizens in the transition, making use of their insights to inform decision making and building a strong democratic mandate for more urgent climate action.

“Additionally, we also want this engagement to have a lasting impact and to be developing and evolving over time as opposed to a one-off intervention.”

Through the fellowship at LEC, David has been able to speak to practitioners in Milan, Italy and Erlangen, Germany, as well as academics at the Knowledge Network on Climate Assemblies to discuss new innovations.

He said: “Milan has made clear their commitment to citizen oversight and involvement by commissioning a yearly citizens assembly to run alongside their climate reporting process so that as the city progresses towards net zero, citizens will have a clear say in how this gets implemented.

“Similarly, in Erlangen a citizen’s assembly was used to bring together citizens, the council, and the private sector to agree a ‘Climate Change Charter’ for the city.

“This novel innovation has kickstarted an amazing new partnership between the council and some of the major stakeholders in the city to coordinate a city-wide response to climate change.”

David said the conversations had shown him what was possible, and sharing them with the Climate Citizens team, as well as councillors and cabinet members at Birmingham had in turn raised the team’s ambitions.

“Together we are now taking these proposals forward and developing an exciting new draft framework on Birmingham City Council’s citizen engagement on climate change.

“Much is still to be decided but I am hopeful that we could see some bold initiatives in the UK’s second city in the near future, partly as a result of this fellowship,” he added.

Rebecca Willis said: “Myself and colleagues are learning a lot from David about the challenges of developing public engagement for climate, in an organisation as complex as Birmingham City Council.

“Our interactions with David, and the other Visiting Fellows, provide us with such a good opportunity to make sure that our work is relevant and useful to decision-makers.”