Tagged: Policy

The Department for Energy Security & Net Zero (DESNZ) has published the UK Government’s climate and nature public participation plan: Energising Britain. Professors Patrick Devine-Wright, Karen Bickerstaff, Lorraine Whitmarsh (ACCESS Leadership Team) and Nigel Gilbert (ACCESS Co-Investigator) contributed to the plan through roundtable sessions organised by DESNZ and the British Academy this year, as did […]

Patrick Devine-Wright has been invited to participate in the IPCC Workshop on Engaging Diverse Knowledge Systems which takes place at the University of Reading in February 2026. This workshop aims to address how Indigenous knowledge systems, practitioner knowledge and local knowledge could be accessed and assessed by the IPCC. The workshop is expected to generate recommendations […]

The joint response draws on research and lessons from international case studies, including Irish grid operator EirGrid’s pilot community fund. The authors welcome the government’s proposal to provide those affected by new transmission network infrastructure with a range of community benefits, including direct bill discounts and community funds. In order to help ensure the scheme […]

Professor Lorraine Whitmarsh MBE (Director of the Centre for Climate Change and Social Transformations (CAST), University of Bath) has been appointed Lead Author to Chapter 8 of Working Group III. Working Group III focuses on climate change mitigation, assessing methods for reducing greenhouse gas emissions, and removing greenhouse gases from the atmosphere, and Chapter 8 looks […]

Professor Benjamin Sovacool (ACCESS Leadership Team & University of Sussex), Professor Nicholas Pidgeon (ACCESS Co-Investigator & Cardiff University), and Professor Sara Walker (Co-Director of the Energy Demand Research Centre (EDRC) & University of Birmingham) have been appointed to the new DESNZ Science and Technology Advisory Council.  The Science and Technology Advisory Council comprises 16 highly […]

ACCESS Director Patrick Devine-Wright (University of Exeter) was one of five social science experts invited to attend a roundtable discussion on Public Engagement with Grid Transformation in December 2024. Also invited were Catherine Queen (University of Liverpool), Melanie Rohse (Angela Ruskin University), Matthew Cotton (Teeside University), and Jason Chilvers (University of East Anglia). The summary note from that roundtable was published […]

As an ACCESS Knowledge Exchange Fellow, I contributed to the design, execution, and analysis of a survey and interviews on interdisciplinary working and the benefits of environmental social science, as well as supporting key project outputs like the annotated bibliography, literature review, and the Environmental Social Science kNowledge Exchange Map of Opportunities (ESS NEMO). Being […]

The Environmental Audit Committee (EAC) has drawn on evidence from ACCESS Leadership College Fellow Dr Pamela Buchan (University of Exeter) in a new report urging the government to introduce a national framework for stakeholder participation in marine planning by January 2026. The report warns that current systems allow limited opportunities for public input into marine […]

Perhaps evolving out of an early research focus on the culture of estuarine landscapes, I have always had an interest in liminal places and in-between spaces. In my current role as an ACCESS KEIF (Knowledge Exchange and Impact Fellow), I spend much of my time trying to make sense of the critical space in-between [social] […]

It was a response specifically to Clause 22 of the bill: ‘Benefits for homes near electricity transmission projects’, which suggests provision for a financial benefit scheme based on individuals living within a fixed distance (500m) of transmission infrastructure. Patrick and Rebecca argued that using a set distance to determine community benefits is inequitable and risks […]