House of Commons - Environment, Food and Rural Affairs

Select Committee on Environment, Food and Rural Affairs Eighth Report

2 Information and awareness raising

10. The Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (Defra) launched its Climate Change Communications Initiative in December 2005, using the slogan "Tomorrow's climate, today's challenge" to communicate the threat of climate change and the need for everyone—Government, industry and individuals—to help tackle the problem. To support this initiative, £12 million has been made available over three years, with £8.5m distributed to 83 local communication initiatives in England thus far.[12] In April 2006 the Government—led by Defra—launched a guide to communicating messages about climate change.[13] According to this guide, "the first and most important thing is to change the way people think about climate change. Then we can try to change their behaviour". It claims that the majority of the UK population think that climate change:

is confusing—they can't see how it relates to them;
won't affect them personally;
is a problem for the future, not now; and
can't be affected by their individual actions, because the problem is so big.[14]

In July 2007, as part of its Act on CO₂ campaign, Defra launched a new advertising campaign to raise awareness of the importance of making small changes to help tackle climate change.[15]

11. Research conducted by the Institute for Public Policy Research to examine different methods of climate change communication identified what it termed as 'alarmism', as one of the most common constructs of climate change: a problem which is "awesome, terrible, immense and beyond human control." The Institute concluded that promoting this kind of perception is unlikely to encourage behaviour change, "the scale of the problem as it is shown excludes the possibility of real action" by the reader or viewer, instilling a sense of despair and leading to the conclusion that "the problem is just too big for us to take on".[16] At a screening of Al Gore's film, An Inconvenient Truth, the then Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs spoke of three prevailing attitudes to climate change:

denial of the issue;
a drive to do something about it; or
despair.[17]

12. Global Action Plan cast doubt on the efficacy of Government-funded awareness-raising media advertising campaigns, and expressed concern that the Government is not investing in behavioural change programmes. It argued that:

[…] there is a disconnection between what Government and its agencies say they want to happen and what they are willing to invest in. Government seems to be comfortable making large scale investment in media advertising campaigns that are designed to increase awareness but are not willing to invest in programmes that are designed to change behaviour. There is a growing level of academic evidence that increased awareness does not translate into changes of behaviour.[18]

13. Accordingly, Global Action Plan said that the Government must stimulate behavioural change by using "high profile environmental problems […] such as drought, heatwaves or flooding".[19] Similarly Dr Dave Reay from Edinburgh University noted that increasing awareness of the local and national impacts of climate change could encourage greater understanding of the importance of individual action. Dr Reay argued that:

The public perception of climate change seems to be that either the problem is too great and that individuals can do nothing to tackle it, or that, if there is a problem at all, then its effect will largely be confined to the developing world. Awareness of local and national impacts of climate change should be raised to bring home the direct importance of mitigating climate change to UK individuals.[20]

14. The Environment Agency, on the other hand, expressed concern that confusing messages—using "doom and gloom" rhetoric—may be more likely to engender apathy rather than action, and argued for a more measured approach:

Adaptation messages, especially around flooding, may well be perceived as negative. However there is a critical need to make the public aware of such impacts. By avoiding apocalyptic language and showing how an individual's actions can help them positively prepare for these impacts, we believe changes in both attitudes and behaviour can be engendered.[21]

15. The Energy Saving Trust (EST) argued that investment by individual Government departments into behavioural change activities should be combined to create a "single compelling message".[22] The Community Carbon Reduction Programme (CRed) advocated the "development of a national strategy for enhancing the myriad carbon reduction and energy saving initiatives, to ensure the sharing of best practice and the avoidance of inefficiency, territoriality and replication".[23] According to a YouGov poll commissioned by the Royal Society for the encouragement of Arts, Manufactures and Commerce (RSA), nearly 80% of the people surveyed believe they could personally reduce their carbon emissions. 65% of those surveyed said that every individual should take responsibility for tackling climate change.[24] However, a recent Ipsos Mori poll conducted in June 2007 revealed that over half those surveyed believed that scientists were still questioning the existence of climate change.[25]

16. Philip Sellwood, Chief Executive of the EST, commented on the lack of co-ordination on energy-saving initiatives across central Government:

[…] the average citizen is often seeing things coming from different directions, from different government departments, and we think that just means that they are much less effective than otherwise they might be, and certainly a lot less cost effective than they could be.[26]

17. Research conducted by futerra as part of the Government's UK Climate Change Communications Strategy identified one overarching challenge for stimulating behavioural change:

Changing attitudes towards climate change is not like selling a particular brand of soap—it's like convincing someone to use soap in the first place.

The report furthermore noted that there must be consistency between Government policy and communications in terms of climate change.[27]

18. Raising awareness and citizen involvement at a domestic level is fundamental to tackling climate change. However, we remain unconvinced that all that needs to be done to maximise this is actually being done. We are concerned that the Government is giving out mixed messages and continues to display a fundamental lack of joined-up thinking. It is clear that so far efforts to alert the public to the dangers of climate change, and the need for personal behavioural change to deal with it, have met with mixed results. More needs to be done to achieve greater co-ordination of publicly funded messages and strategies to deal with the problem so that people are not left feeling that they cannot make a difference. We call upon the Government to review its efforts in this area and publish—within six months—details of its proposals for a more effective public communication strategy in this area.

Energy Saving Trust

19. The Energy Saving Trust (EST) was set up by the UK Government following the 1992 Rio Earth Summit. The EST plays a leading role in promoting energy efficiency and renewables to the domestic household sector, as well as cleaner fuels and vehicles to the business transport sector. Supported through grant funding, Defra's Departmental Report 2007 breaks down the financial support provided to the Energy Saving Trust thus:

2005-06 2006-07 2007-08

Energy Saving Trust Grant Payment[28] £27 million £26.2 million £29.1 million

Source: Defra's Departmental Annual Report 2007

20. Given the urgency the Government purports to place on tackling the threat of climate change, we recommend that the Government ensures that the Energy Saving Trust does not suffer the consequences of any tightening or reprioritising of the Departmental budget, as the cut in funding in 2006-07 suggests it did.

21. In April 2005 the EST began piloting the Sustainable Energy Network (SEN) scheme. Building on the existing infrastructure provided by the Trust's network of Energy Efficiency Advice Centres (EEAC), the SEN pilot has created Sustainable Energy Centres (SECs) in three parts of the UK (two in England and one in Northern Ireland). These SEC's are intended to become the key local delivery element of EST's carbon saving activities for UK citizens. The EEACs—funded by Defra and the former Department of Trade and Industry (DTI)—focus on the provision of home energy efficiency advice and advise 770,000 people each year. Each Centre is to "deliver defined regional carbon saving targets in [its] territory".[29]

22. Initial results from the first year of the Sustainable Energy Network (SEN) pilot scheme (2005-06) suggest that only 20,508 customers have been referred on to grant and discount schemes against a target of 34,850, representing a shortfall of some 40%. However, as of February 2007 the pilot programme was ahead of its target number of customers in terms of advice given, with overall carbon savings for the period exceeding the target by 50%.[30] In its response the Government and Energy Saving Trust must provide details of the future of the Sustainable Energy Network pilot and if so, whether the intention is to roll this out more widely and over what timescale. Furthermore, the Energy Saving Trust should provide details as to how the 50% figure for overall carbon savings was determined, as we are concerned that tools to calculate domestic emissions are still at a very early stage of development.

23. According to the EST, "there is no specific funding from the Department for Transport for SEN in relation to transport activities, meaning only limited activity is taking place".[31] The Department for Transport shares a joint PSA target with Defra and the former DTI pledging to reduce greenhouse gas emissions. Furthermore, the Government's draft Climate Change Bill places a legal duty upon the Secretary of State to reduce CO₂ emissions by 60% below 1990 baseline levels by 2050. Accordingly, we recommend that additional Government funding is made available to the Energy Saving Trust specifically to tackle greenhouse gas emissions from personal transport. We recommend that the Department for Transport (DfT) recognise its responsibility to ensure that the EST has appropriate funding to pursue its transport emissions reduction programme. The DfT should now confirm what steps it will take to tackle this problem.

Community initiatives

24. The Community Carbon Reduction Programme (CRed) at the University of East Anglia is a network of partnerships which has set out to demonstrate how a 60% reduction in carbon emissions can be achieved by 2025. The CRed team works with its partners— including schools, businesses, local authorities, hospitals, community groups and individuals—to estimate how much CO₂ they are responsible for, and identify where and how to reduce emissions in the short, medium and long term. CRed argued that:

With households responsible for around a third of all [the] UK emissions it is vital that communities become involved in carbon reduction. Indeed, the Government recognised this in the Energy White Paper of 2003 when it called for "unprecedented action by local partnerships" to deliver its aspiration for a 60% reduction in carbon emissions by 2050.[32]

25. The Environment Agency cited a survey by the Tyndall Centre for Climate Change Research showing that "62% of people believe climate change to be so serious that every possible action should be taken to tackle it".[33] In the context of the same survey, however, "most people also indicated that the main responsibility for change lies at global and national levels, and not with the individual."[34] The Environment Agency was optimistic about the potential for individual action in tackling climate change and observed that there is "strong public backing" for individual and community action to contribute to emissions reductions, although noted that "[w]hat is required is the right mix of support and encouragement".[35]

26. We heard from witnesses who came to speak to us at the University of East Anglia that there is a great appetite for community level initiatives to tackle climate change, but that support is needed to overcomes a variety of barriers. Although we were told of positive examples, such as the work being done in Ashton Hayes, Cheshire, many community initiatives are taking place in spite of, rather than as a result of, Government activity. As Dr Laurence Matthews told us: "[…] with carbon reduction, I feel that there is a sort of social contract here. We are being exhorted to do our bit, but the Government need to play their part too […]".[36]

Pledge schemes

27. The Energy Saving Trust has launched a 'pledge' scheme Save your 20%, encouraging UK householders to commit to a series of simple measures to save at least 20% of the carbon dioxide emissions for which their homes and lifestyles are responsible.[37] A similar pledge scheme used by the Community Carbon Reduction Programme (CRed) at the University of East Anglia has "engaged with over 6,500 householders who have pledged to carry out around 21,000 carbon reduction measures".[38] These measures range from simple pledges such as turning off standby, fitting three low energy light bulbs, or switching to a renewable energy tariff to more costly and complex pledge actions, such as installing solar panels. CRed told us that there has been a four-fold increase in engagement from the domestic sector between 2004-05 and 2005-06, and that it had "witnessed a sea change in the level of public understanding of the link between CO₂ emissions and climate change".[39] In a further pledge scheme, the Chairman of the Royal Society for the encouragement of Arts, Manufactures & Commerce (RSA) challenged individuals to "manage their carbon 'footprint' by aiming to reduce their individual carbon emissions to five tonnes a year".[40] In June 2007 the Government launched its online CO₂ calculator. We discuss this further in paragraph 151.

28. CRed, CSE and Global Action Plan were all critical of the Government and the Energy Saving Trust's record on establishing the evidence base for 'soft measures' such as the provision of information and advice and stimulating community awareness. According to the Centre for Sustainable Energy:

A key failing of the 14 years since the Energy Saving Trust was established—and of Defra as its principal funder—is that it has not invested in establishing an academically robust body of evidence that demonstrates the energy and carbon saving benefits of providing individuals with advice, supporting community organisations, and encouraging local authorities to improve their performance.[41]

29. CSE argued that this "evidence gap" results in measures such as advice provision and awareness raising not being given any credit for carbon savings, with progress being attributed to more easily quantifiable measures such as the EEC and grant programmes, even if the uptake of these initiatives has been stimulated by awareness-raising schemes. This also raises the concern of 'double-counting' the associated energy and carbon savings.[42] Similar concerns have been raised by Global Action Plan, which claimed that "Government funding is usually directed to awareness raising campaigns for which little or no evidence of effectiveness is sought, rather than towards behaviour change initiatives where evidence is demanded."[43] CRed also emphasised the importance of creating an evidence base, arguing that:

The joining-up of the plethora of, largely pledge-based, carbon reduction initiatives which produce useful data on carbon savings should be a priority […] currently data is not always recorded intelligently, and in many instances data is lost altogether. Moreover, there is scant evidence to suggest that many organisations securing carbon reduction commitments from the public are conducting any meaningful analysis of whether these promises are being acted on, as little or no evaluation work is carried out.

…it is absolutely crucial that a mechanism is put in place to ensure that the data from ALL pledge schemes is collated and properly stored and use. Further that a national strategy is put in place to oversee and advise those operating pledge-based schemes. There is a real danger that data will be lost and that vital information on public attitudes toward energy use will not be fully exploited by government and the agencies empowered to shape citizen's attitude to energy efficiency.[44]

30. These concerns were raised with the Energy Saving Trust (EST) in evidence. In response, EST argued that, whilst these concerns were valid, EST's programmes were subject to thorough evaluation which provided reliable evidence of their effectiveness.[45]

31. Pledge schemes clearly have a role to play in raising awareness about climate change and what individuals can do to address this problem. However, there is a plethora of such schemes with a multiplicity of messages. This degree of multiplicity may result in confusion, particularly as schemes are often couched in different terms—some to save tonnes of carbon dioxide, others to reduce your carbon footprint, and others to 'save your 20%'. We are also concerned by the lack of appropriate monitoring of these pledge schemes. Whilst there is some evidence that information and awareness translates into action, it is difficult to be sure how far this impact goes. We recommend that Defra invite the promoters of pledge schemes to attend a seminar designed to address these problems and improve the quality, effectiveness, objectivity and performance of such schemes. Monitoring of impacts must also be co-ordinated.

Education and schools programmes

32. During its visit to Leicester in September 2006, the Committee heard how pupils who acted as 'Eco Warriors' at a primary school had sought to change behaviour not only at school but also in their own households. Several witnesses, including Global Action Plan, the Centre for Sustainable Energy (CSE) and CRed have emphasised the importance of education about the environment and the implementation of energy-saving programmes in schools. Global Action Plan has run its 'Action at School' programme in 164 schools. Most of these schools concentrated their efforts on reducing waste. However, some schools have participated in energy programmes; nine of these schools have reduced their energy use by an average of 12%. The CSE Energy Matters programme was delivered to some 18,000 pupils across 500 schools between 2000-2003. The programme was designed to provide resources linked to the curriculum, which "required only limited support and input from [CSE] to help familiarise the teachers with the programme". According to CSE, an independently-led evaluation of the programme in 2003 found that energy-saving behaviour improved in 76% of the families of pupils in classes where the programme was taught.[46] The Centre for Alternative Technology in Machynlleth, Wales has many visitors from schools, and told us that not only were young people more open and receptive to learning about the social, environmental and economic impacts of making different choices, but that they tended to influence their parents as well as their peers.

33. CSE argued that continued high impact of schools programmes "will not be achieved without up-to-date curriculum-linked resources, training and ongoing support for teachers". It told us that:

programme funders such as Defra, DfES and the Energy Saving Trust must recognise the immediate positive environmental benefit of energy education and reflect on the need for effective programmes to be up-to-date and supported.[47]

34. CRed argued that schools should be made:

a focus for this whole campaign; CRed has helped enthusiastic schools make very large cuts in energy use; climate change and resource efficiency should be a central plank not just in the curriculum but a central plank of how schools go about their business. Schools are the nexus of their communities; the message would spread not only among young people who will suffer if we do not tackle climate change, but out to parents and the rest of the community.[48]

THE ROLE OF LOCAL GOVERNMENT

35. The Government's review of the UK Climate Change Programme, published in March 2006, stated that

action by local authorities is likely to be critical to the achievement of Government's climate change objectives. Local authorities are uniquely placed to provide vision and leadership to local communities, raise awareness and help change behaviours.[49]

and noted that some local authorities are already taking "exemplary action on climate change". Shropshire County Council, for example, has reduced CO₂ emissions from corporate buildings by 57% between 1990 and 2005.[50] In March 2007, the Local Government Association established the Independent Climate Change Commission to consider the role of councils in both tackling and adapting to climate change.

The Nottingham Declaration on Climate Change
Launched in October 2000, the Nottingham Declaration on Climate Change is a voluntary pledge to address the issues of climate change. To date over 200 councils in England and Wales have signed up to a climate change declaration such as the Nottingham Declaration, "committing their authority to take action on mitigating the effects of and adapting to climate change".[51]

36. According to the Local Government Association (LGA), although research suggests that awareness of climate change is around 90%, awareness of its urgency and scale is no greater than 15%. A report prepared for Hampshire County Council argues that "a key barrier to awareness is that people believe that climate change is so huge an issue that there is nothing meaningful that they can do about it". Several local authorities have been successful in bidding for financial support made available through Defra's Climate Challenge Fund to facilitate communicating to both individuals and communities about climate change.[52] The Energy Saving Trust has outlined its role in helping local authorities, for example through helplines and Local Support Teams. The EST has also said, however, that funding for these activities is "under threat".[53]

37. The LGA argued that councils can "plan, deliver, co-ordinate and enable the changes necessary to bring about a step-change in results". It argued that the "lack of a long term funding system and the stop start nature of project based funding" is a barrier to action on climate change which is consistently described by local authorities, and highlights the difficulty in accessing funds provided by a variety of bodies as "a particular barrier for smaller authorities and those not yet particularly active on climate change".[54]

38. In creating a "sustainable home" Alan Simpson MP sought to use recycled materials where possible, in order to retain the embedded energy in materials already used within the built environment. However, he expressed concern that there is "no obvious resource point for the public to access information about recycled materials and the built environment … we have to have a strategy that makes it easy for people to find out what is available and be excited by some of the work already being done."[55] Several witnesses complained about the patchy, or indeed a complete lack of, advice. The Chief Executive of Woking Borough Council, Ray Morgan, told us that they had identified the difficulty citizens were experiencing in accessing information as a problem, and were developing a 'walk-in' shop on the high street where people could obtain free independent advice and information, as well as purchase energy efficient goods.

Woking Borough Council
Woking Borough Council first published its Climate Change Strategy Think Globally Act Locally in March 2003. In 1999 it established an Energy and Environmental Services Company to deliver Woking's climate change goals. Several housing developments in the Borough have incorporated renewable energy systems, such as photovoltaic roof-tiles, and the energy efficiency of residential property across the Borough has increased by 33% from 1999 levels with a corresponding decrease in CO₂ emissions of 21%. A 1.3 GW Combined Heat and Power (CHP) plant has been established in the town centre serving the Council's Civic Offices, a leisure complex, an adjacent hotel and other buildings via a private wire grid. It is the "first commercially operating energy station of its kind in the country". Woking Park was also the site of the UK's first fuel-cell CHP system. The Council is now recognised as a Beacon Council (2005-06) for Sustainable Energy.[56]

39. Defra has acknowledged the importance of the different levels of delivery in terms of National Government, Regional Assemblies and Regional Development Agencies, and local Authorities and Housing Agencies.[57] Furthermore, in addition to the Energy Saving Trust's Sustainable Energy Networks, we have also heard about local borough council and community initiatives, such as those in Woking and Ashton Hayes, Cheshire.

40. Although there is a lot of ad hoc activity, there is no concerted central Government strategy to help local authorities to develop local greenhouse gas reduction programmes. Furthermore, it appears to us that community and local government initiatives are often taking place in spite of, rather than because of, Government activity. The Government must take visible steps to remove barriers to encourage local authorities to be more proactive in this area. It should publish before the end of 2007 its proposals to achieve this objective. The provision of information and advice at local level appear at best patchy and funding appears to be low and misdirected. Funding and activity clearly needs to be coordinated at a regional level between local authorities, Regional Development Agencies, and the Energy Saving Trust's Energy Efficiency Advice Centres and Sustainable Energy Networks, amongst others, to ensure that everyone has regional access to credible and independent advice, whilst avoiding unnecessary duplication of effort. The Government must make clear in its response how it proposes to do this.

12 Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, Departmental Report 2007, Cm 7103, May 2007 Back

13 In partnership with the Energy Saving Trust, the Carbon Trust, the Department of Trade and Industry, the Environment Agency, the UK Climate Impacts Programme and the Department for Transport. Back

14 Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, Tomorrow's Climate Today's Challenge, April 2006 Back

15 Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, Benn unveils campaign to inspire climate action, News release 207/07, 9 July 2007 Back

16 Institute for Public Policy Research, Warm Words: How are we telling the climate story and can we tell it better? Ereaut and Segnit, August 2006 Back

17 BAFTA screening of An Inconvenient Truth, July 2006 Back

18 Ev 55 Back

19 Ev 52 Back

20 Ev 199 Back

21 Ev 316 Back

22 Ev 1 Back

23 Ev 302 Back