It’s safe to say Climate Change has made it to the forefront of everyone’s minds.
After more than 40 years of warnings, the most recent IPCC report states that ‘human influence has warmed the climate at a rate that is unprecedented in at least the last 2000 years.’ This features amongst other devastating quotes and predications that are making headlines across the UK and featuring alongside the backdrop of burning landscapes. However, fear alone does not get rid of fossil fuels or help people when flooding hits their local area.
At Severn Wye we are considering how a fair and just sustainable future looks for the people we help across our fuel poverty and rural poverty projects. If we are indeed ‘building back better’ (I know we’ve all heard enough of that) on our journey to carbon neutral, we know that the way we fuel our homes, transport and businesses will need to change, and our throwaway culture needs to make way for thrift and restoration. Yet all these changes appear more accessible to the fortunate, with the money to fund them independently.
Research shows that people on low-incomes are more likely to be negatively impacted by climate change, poor air quality and face higher rates for energy (Statistics & Statistics, 2020). Rural areas are particularly hard hit by levys, taxes and surcharges on energy and transport, without feasible solutions. Those on low incomes have been less likely to be consulted or included in policymaking efforts in the past, and this has meant transitions have rarely been ‘just’ – often exasperating inequalities rather than addressing them (Sovacool and Brisbois 2019.; Gillard et al., 2017). Socially cohesive* communities have the ability to respond better to disasters, like that of COVID19, yet social cohesion is often eroded by low-income and deprivation (Fonseca et al., 2019; Vergolini, 2011).
A resilient future therefore needs to build cohesive communities across areas to be fair, and there are some great opportunities! Locally Climate Action Groups and Networks, like those in Stroud (supported by Transition Stroud), are taking back power and making positive climate action. Climate action can lead to social gains in supporting one another, mindfulness benefits to wellbeing when leading a sustainable life and economic gains through green jobs and local business. Hold on, suddenly it seems like climate action leads to socially cohesive communities!
Yet nobody has shown that climate action can lead to social cohesion or how climate action at the community level is about more than being green. It’s about people. That’s why this questionnaire asks anyone who wants to answer about both climate action, and how included people feel in communities. Without this evidence, groups can’t get the funding they need for their wider wellbeing benefits nor can community investment be recognised for its importance in our transition to carbon neutral and associated policy.
We need to know what climate action is occurring and whether we are measuring it correctly, because no-one has done this consistently before, or from much more than a ‘yes’ or ‘no’ perspective. The real world is not so black and white. This questionnaire will help me investigate the question: Can what is good for the climate be good for the community; and are these opportunities fairly distributed?
I would greatly appreciate it if you could complete this questionnaire, which will take 20 minutes of your time: https://chester.onlinesurveys.ac.uk/climate-action-and-communities-questionnaire. This is being circulated in rural areas that Severn Wye operate, in partnership with Chester University, and the Centre for Research into Environmental Science and Technology.
This research will provide evidence and discuss any social benefits of climate action; recognise them in the academic literature influencing policy and decision-making; and ensure opportunities are equally and fairly distributed among communities in which Severn Wye and partners operate. This study will bring us to the beginning of the COP26 summit in the UK, a timely meeting where politicians will discuss climate change and ‘accelerate action towards the goals’ of carbon (and other climate change accelerating gases) reductions they have made, and are in many cases failing to achieve.
The work won’t end with a questionnaire though. Once this stage is completed, the researcher can work backwards from the findings and carry out interviews and community working in areas with little action to ask: Can climate action bring a community together and aid poverty alleviation as part of a just transition? If there is one thing Severn Wye is good at, it’s working proactively with rural communities and getting stuck-in to find the solutions in real-time as we all travel on our carbon neutral journey – now, and for the future!
* What is a socially cohesive community? Fonseca et al 2019 propose that social cohesion is ‘the ongoing process of developing well-being, sense of belonging, and voluntary social participation, of the members of society, while developing communities that tolerate and promote a multiplicity of values and cultures, and granting at the same time equal rights and opportunities in society.’ It’s a bit of a mouthful but it’s a healthy, inclusive and supportive community.
Sources for my many bold claims and statements
Sovacool, B., and Brisbois, M. (2019) Elite power and transitions 1. (n.d.). 1–33.
Fonseca, X., Lukosch, S., & Brazier, F. (2019). Social cohesion revisited: a new definition and how to characterize it. Innovation: The European Journal of Social Science Research, 32(2), 231–253. https://doi.org/10.1080/13511610.2018.1497480
Gillard, R., Snell, C., & Bevan, M. (2017). Advancing an energy justice perspective of fuel poverty: Household vulnerability and domestic retrofit policy in the United Kingdom. Energy Research and Social Science, 29(May), 53–61. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.erss.2017.05.012
IPCC. (2021). Assessment Report 6 Climate Change 2021: The Physical Science Basis. https://www.ipcc.ch/report/ar6/wg1/
Statistics, H., & Statistics, N. (2020). Annual Fuel Poverty Statistics in England, 2020 (2018 data) 30. 2020(April 2016).
Vergolini, L. (2011). Social cohesion in europe: How do the different dimensions of inequality affect social cohesion? International Journal of Comparative Sociology, 52(3), 197–214. https://doi.org/10.1177/0020715211405421
