Cardiff University findings support the creation of the UK Climate Change Committee – A case study

Nick Pidgeon from Cardiff University’s School of Psychology was asked by the Chair of the All-Party Parliamentary Climate Change Group to lead an inquiry to investigate if cross-party consensus on climate change was possible.

The inquiry conducted research including:

• capturing oral evidence from senior parliamentarians and climate scientists
• written submissions from external stakeholders
• and quantitative and qualitative research on behaviour and perceptions of climate change

The research revealed a ‘governance trap’ that constrained action on the part of the UK government due to fear that long-term beneficial legislation would be unpopular with the electorate in the short-term (Pidgeon, 2012).

As a result of these findings recommendations were put forward for restructuring of the UK’s institutional climate governance structures, and the creation of a trust; an independent science body to hold successive governments to account and overcome the pressures of the electoral cycle.

When the UK Government put forward and passed into law the Climate Change Act in 2008, they included at its centre the creation of the UK Climate Change Committee as an independent non-departmental public body of climate scientists and economists recommending UK climate targets and monitoring progress in a direct response to the work.

One of a series of case study examples that demonstrates the value of Environmental Social Science in research and practice. More info