Centre for Public Policy

The Centre for Public Policy, along with colleagues at the University of Glasgow, supported a policy insight workshop in February as part of the British Academy’s Where We Live Next programme. One of a UK-wide series, the workshop brought together sustainability and environmental experts working in SHAPE (Social Sciences, Humanities and the Arts for People and the Economy) research, local government, government agencies, non-governmental organisations, and business communities in Glasgow and Scotland. Here, Rob Richardson and Hannah Salamon reflect on their experience as participants in the policy insight workshop.

Scotland’s target of reaching ‘net zero’ carbon emissions by 2045 (and 2050 for the rest of the UK) necessitates deep and wide-ranging changes across society. The policy problems which need solving – including moving to renewable energy sources, adapting to already ‘locked in’ climate change, developing a more sustainable circular economy, and ensuring that social justice pervades each – requires innovation beyond what policy communities are currently managing to deliver. The scale of this challenge was highlighted by the Chief Executive of the UK Committee on Climate Change Chris Stark, and Honorary Professor of the Centre for Public Policy, in his inaugural lecture in November.

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The power of place holds important solutions, for environmental sustainability and several key policy challenges more widely. The British Academy’s Where We Live Next programme aims to unlock this potential, by understanding why and how policies can better catalyse the power of places – and the diverse people, cultures, and biospheres within them. The initial phase of the project had identified five themes which underpin place-sensitive policymaking: environmental knowledge and education; language and a discourse that resonates with a particular place; long-term, trusted, and inclusive relationships; nested governance mechanisms and spaces; and delegated power and resources.

As part of this programme, the policy insight workshop explored why place matters for climate and environment policy, and what policy could do to catalyse a more sustainable future for places, focusing on just energy transitions in Glasgow. To spark this process, three SHAPE researchers at the University of Glasgow presented their work on just energy transitions, from a series of different perspectives.

Dr Rhys Williams of the Infrastructure Humanities Group argued for the importance of the humanities for finding solutions to reach net zero, and presented research on ‘energysheds’ – an area in which all power consumed within is provided within. Professor Harriet Thomson spoke about energy poverty and the opportunities of community energy provision, recognising that several significant barriers to establishing community energy systems must be overcome first. Finally, Professor Alice Mah highlighted the difficult case of the petrochemical industry within the transition to net zero, especially when such industries have strong connections to place, for example, in Grangemouth.

The diverse expertise of participants helped reveal several specific barriers to progress within particular policy communities. Participants drew attention to the detrimental effects of siloed policy spaces—wherein various authorities operating at separate scales lack coordination, collaboration, or even communication with each other. This can contribute to fragmentary approaches to environmentalism and prevent community-driven initiatives.

Another barrier identified by participants was the lack of long-term support for research and implementation of environmental solutions; while funding may be awarded to set up various programmes to enable climate action with benefits for communities, these programmes cannot be maximally effective if they terminate after a short-term funding period ends.

Participants were just as adept at naming ways to move past these barriers, voicing solutions including fostering collaboration on climate action between spheres of governments, reducing capitalist interests in favour of community interests in environmental policy, and promoting public and community engagement with environmental policymaking and setting up long-term oriented initiatives for environmentalism.

Likewise, Scotland has a strong place-based policy agenda which reflects how considering the physical, social and environmental elements of a place collectively enhance the potential of people, physical and natural assets in a place. Local service provision is also governed by the Place Principle, which expects those responsible for providing services and looking after assets in a place to work and plan together with local communities.

However, the implementation of such policy can be challenging. For example, planners attending the workshop reflected that while Scotland’s highest level planning policy - the fourth National Planning Framework – strongly embeds place-based responses to climate change, this will take several years to filter through into local development plans and built outcomes. Likewise, planning authority capacity is stretched and the recruitment of experienced planners is difficult, especially in the context of austerity, which creates challenging conditions for implementing forward-looking policy.

There appears to be a feeling among practitioners, activists and environmental policy actors, that the road ahead is precarious. However, the Where We Live Next policy insight workshop provided the opportunity for individuals from various communities to connect, share insight, and collaborate on solution-building.

The British Academy will produce a report on the Where We Live Next programme, which will include the insights from this workshop. The event underlined the necessity of collaboration in developing policy solutions for net zero. The Centre for Public Policy will continue to engage with academics and policy actors in this area, to support the green transition and efforts to harness the power of ‘place’.

 

 

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First published: 16 April 2024