Dec 3rd 2009
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Loading ...Climate change, ready or not
On 26 September 2009, World Wide Views on Global Warming held a groundbreaking series of global citizen consultations. For the first time, ordinary people around the world came together to express their views on climate change and how a future climate deal should be shaped.
The Institute for Sustainable Futures organised the Australian event, one of more than 40 held concurrently in 38 countries. Roughly 100 people – selected at random from all states and territories, and from all ages and backgrounds – gathered in Sydney to talk about climate change and the way ahead.
Dr Chris Riedy from the ISF said, ‘Australia is potentially very affected by climate change, so it’s important to give people across Australia a say in the decisions that are made at the United Nations forum in Copenhagen.’ WWViews aimed to give ordinary people a say in the political decision-making process prior to the UN negotiations from 7 to 18 December. The project was initiated by the Danish Board of Technology, an independent advisory organisation financed by the Danish Ministry of Science, Technology and Innovation.
‘It’s never been done before’, said Dr Riedy. ‘It’s a truly global event and the first real opportunity for citizens all around the world to have their say.’
The key message was the need for governments to commit confidently to a global deal. 92% of participants felt that a global climate deal was urgent, and 94% that, if such a deal was made at Copenhagen, Australian politicians should commit to it. 74% said the price of fossil fuels should be increased to deal with climate change.
A full 99% said there should be reduction targets for Annex 1 (industrialised) countries for the short term and 89% said they should be 25% or higher, significantly more than what many countries have on the table (Australia is included in the Annex 1 group). Two thirds believe countries that do not meet their commitments under a new climate deal should be subjected to ‘severe’ or ‘significant’ punishment.
Louise Hand, Australia’s chief negotiator at the Copenhagen talks, was at the Sydney event, and pledged to take note of the Australian results.
In the WWViews project, around 4400 citizens from across the globe were given the same information material, which presented them with different dilemmas in the climate debate. Citizens answered identical questions, composed by the Danish Board of Technology, on the basis of this material and their own views and experience. Results from all countries were then fed live to the web.
Dr Riedy said the deliberative process was much more useful than a simple phone poll. ‘With a phone poll you get people’s unconsidered opinions and what they’ve heard from the media. They haven’t had time to really think about the issue. What we’ve done here is given them information in the form of an information pack and a video so they can think about the issue, talk about with their colleagues and come to a considered view on what they think of climate change. This will give different results when you have thought deeply about the issue.’
The Institute for Sustainable Futures was the Australian partner and UTS the major sponsor, with the support of PricewaterhouseCoopers, the National Australia Bank, World Wildlife Fund and the Victorian Department of Sustainability and Environment.
Andrew Petersen, sustainability and climate change partner at PricewaterhouseCoopers, said, ‘In the move towards the low carbon economy, it’s absolutely critical that policy makers and politicians put in place the right strategic framework for our economy and environment. After that, we need to see the business community taking leadership on the strategies that will come about as a result.’
In June 2009, PwC released its third survey of business sentiment and readiness for a carbon constrained economy. The survey of 151 Australian CEOs showed that less that a quarter (23.8%) of Australian businesses were prepared for the introduction of the government’s Carbon Pollution Reduction Scheme.
‘Preparing a business to survive, respond and grow in a low carbon economy could well be the mark in the future between good and great business leaders’, Mr Petersen said at the time.
Sean Lucy, head of environmental finance solutions at NAB said, ‘Fundamentally we saw [WWViews] was the right thing to do. We are concerned about climate change and how it will affect our business, our people and the society that we are a part of, and we think that it’s very important that individual citizens a have a way to participate in the international negotiations that will be going on in Copenhagen at the end of this year.’ In September, the bank was listed among the top scoring Global 500 companies in the Carbon Disclosure Project (CDP) Climate Disclosure Leadership Index (CDLI).
‘One of the key things that have come through is a real sense of urgency and the need to achieve an agreement that is meaningful and effective.’
The results were immediately published online, and form the basis of the World Wide Views Policy Brief, released on 19 November.
For more information about the UTS Climate Change Action Plan, contact Dr Chris Riedy at the UTS Institute for Sustainable Futures.
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