I will if you will, by Ed Mayo

19 Jul 07
It's time to step up the fight against global warming. Local government has been leading the way but now it must help an increasingly concerned public to do its bit. The best way is through environmental contracts, argue Jill Johnstone and Ed Mayo

20 July 2007

It's time to step up the fight against global warming. Local government has been leading the way but now it must help an increasingly concerned public to do its bit. The best way is through environmental contracts, argue Jill Johnstone and Ed Mayo

How do we organise ourselves for the fight against climate change? There is a wealth of concern, but few signs of a systematic approach to harnessing public action. The National Consumer Council believes that one answer is to draw on a contemporary version of an old idea – the social contract.

This conceptual device, which can be used to spell out the legitimate role of government and the relationship between individuals and the state, has underpinned the written constitutions of countries from Malaysia to the US. It can equally be adapted as an environmental contract, which would define the rights and responsibilities of individuals and communities in relation to climate change.

After the 1992 Earth Summit in Rio, it was local governments that reacted quickly to involve the public and start doing something. Around the world, under the rubric of 'Agenda 21', a series of formative innovations in participatory democracy and engagement kicked off. 'Think global, act local' made its way off the page and into the wider world.

Now 'I will if you will', the one phrase that best summarises the attitudes of the public on climate change, needs to do the same. The NCC's new booklet, The environmental contract: how to harness public action on climate change, shows how.

There is growing public recognition about the potentially chaotic impacts of climate change and interest in what companies and government will do about it. News reports, scientific evidence, the fate of polar bears, various campaigns and Al Gore's film An Inconvenient Truth, have all contributed to this.

Two out of three people now believe that the UK is being affected by climate change or will be within the next five years, according to a survey of US and UK consumers carried out last month by Accountability and Consumers International. More than one in two (52%) believe they are being affected or will be in the same time frame. While attitudes are negative and fearful, not everything is seen as bad news – one in five (19%) thought that the UK was becoming warmer and so a better place to spend holidays.

The survey, What assures consumers on climate change: switching on citizen power, also shows that most respondents believe that scientists and environmental groups are credible sources of information on climate change, but only one in ten trusts the claims of business on this subject. Despite this rising awareness, the public sector has typically sidestepped the tricky issue of public behaviour. But individual choice is amenable to change, particularly at the local level. There are already good examples in other fields, particularly health, of the public sector working successfully with individuals to change behaviour. Drives to cut smoking and promote safe sex, for example, show which approaches work.

In the sustainablility arena, many of the choices we have as individuals are framed by shared factors, whether social norms or infrastructure, such as roads, urban planning, energy grids and building regulations. Choices such as how to travel to work, for example, are wrapped up in routine. System change, such as the congestion charge in London, can make the sustainable choice an easier choice.

Some other changes can be made without impinging directly on individual choice, such as waste in the food chain, water leakages and energy lost in transmission. This does not necessarily have to involve central government either. For example, households using renewable energy such as solar panels and wind turbines can be paid for energy they put back in the grid.

There will always be some initiatives that are best taken forward at a local level, particularly those that are potentially controversial. These include road tolls, congestion charging, variable waste charges, fortnightly rubbish collections, neighbourhood planning for renewable energy and sustainable transport. Even if decisions are influenced or shaped by what happens at city, region, national, UK or European level, these work best wrapped up in a local environmental contract, subject to local debate.

The contract approach could also generate new ideas and relationships between local government and its residents. Councils can offer positive incentives both to individuals, such as parking discounts for low-carbon vehicles, and to the community.

For example, they could agree to double spending on facilities such as local parks in return for residents doubling the number of aluminium cans they send for recycling. They could inspire neighbourhoods to cut waste and recycle instead by providing comparative information on waste put out in each street. They could encourage schools to go green, by giving them extra per-pupil funding for initiatives such as children walking to school, recycling and use of micro-renewable energy. At the community level, people could make suggestions for what could be added – along the model of www.pledgebank.com, where many of the communities' promises of action have been environmental.

A very good example of people and organisations acting together on sustainability at the local level is Zaragoza, the Spanish 'water-saving city'. Along with much of the rest of Spain, Zaragoza suffered from acute water shortages – but decided to do something about it. The town set out to save 1,000 million litres of water in a year through raising awareness and encouraging greater use of water saving devices. The result was overwhelming. After a year, it exceeded the target by 18%.

There are several other examples of local action. In the UK, the village of Ilam in the Peak District has banned incandescent light bulbs, replacing them with energy efficient bulbs. Machynlleth, a small town in rural Powys, Wales, has gained an international reputation as a centre for sustainable technology. There are a number of environmental organisations there, including the local regeneration group Eco-Dyfi and the Centre for Alternative Technology.

Now it's time for everyone to start doing their bit. A contract is about exchange – you give something up and get something in return.

Jill Johnstone and Ed Mayo are respectively director of policy and chief executive of the National Consumer Council

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