CLIMATE OUTREACH: PUBLIC ENGAGEMENT ON CLIMATE CHANGE

Over the past sixth months, we have been working with Climate Outreach on how to develop more ambitious forms of public engagement as part of a robust approach to climate change.

Their recent report A Guide for Grantmakers captures some of the immediate implications of this work. Mark Workman and David Gunn from the Foresight Transitions team have also developed a more in depth report entitled Finding Our Future Together, exploring some of the systemic issues and opportunities of public engagement in more detail.

From Finding Our Future Together:

From a systems perspective, the current over-reliance on incremental, persuasive approaches to public engagement poses significant risk—artificially sustaining the legitimacy of failing systems whilst also diverting resources from other, more expansive strategies for both mitigation and adaptation.

There is an urgent need for new forms of public engagement that can play more varied roles in the transition, and drive multiple benefits including: helping publics embrace a transformation mindset, repairing the social contract, and developing the collective resilience of communities to navigate a period of dramatic, unpredictable change.

Download the full report