Research 425: Connecting People to Climate Change Action: Informing Participatory Frameworks for the National Dialogue on Climate Action (C-CHANGE)

Authors: Marguerite Nyhan, Barry O'Dwyer and Yairen Jerez Columbié

Summary: Ireland has committed to achieving a net-zero and climate-neutral economy by 2050. The C-CHANGE project is focused on developing solutions and provides guidance on facilitating stakeholders’ and citizens’ participation in environmental and climate dialogues and thus in climate action nationally and internationally. The research outputs provide clear and flexible guidelines that can be adapted to different contexts, sectors and audiences by practitioners, researchers and authorities.

Published: 2022

ISBN: 978-1-80009-072-9

Pages: 45

Filesize: 1,625 KB

Format: pdf

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Project Highlights

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Identifying Pressures

Ireland has committed to achieving a net-zero and climate-neutral economy by 2050. The Climate Action and Low Carbon Development (Amendment) Act 2021 sets out this ambition in legislation, while the Climate Action Plan defines a pathway to achieve it. A society-wide and collaborative effort is required by government, business, communities and individuals in Ireland to make this transition. To this end, the National Dialogue on Climate Action aims to actively engage stakeholders and the public with climate action across Ireland by empowering people. To be effective, the National Dialogue on Climate Action must identify new and innovative ways of engaging and communicating with the public to foster trust, co-operation and participation. It is also imperative that mechanisms for ensuring that everyone has a voice in national climate dialogues are designed and implemented effectively. The C-CHANGE project responds directly to these challenges.

Informing Policy

The C-CHANGE project informs climate-related environmental policies, legislation, regulations and guidelines.

• Public debate, specifically, the Department of the Environment, Climate and Communications National Dialogue on Climate Action, is directly informed by this project.
• The Government of Ireland’s Climate Action Plan proposes a major programme of change across all sectors to reduce Ireland’s national emissions. The C-CHANGE outputs maximise stakeholders’ and citizens’ involvement in developing and implementing this action plan.
• C-CHANGE addresses key objectives set out in the Government of Ireland’s Project Ireland 2040 National Planning Framework. C-CHANGE deliverables feed into local authority plans. Under the Climate Action and Low Carbon Development (Amendment) Act 2021, each government sector is required to develop climate change mitigation plans. C-CHANGE directly informs these processes.
• C-CHANGE makes a significant scientific contribution to global challenges, specifically to the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals.

Developing Solutions

The C-CHANGE project is focused on developing solutions and provides guidance on facilitating stakeholders’ and citizens’ participation in environmental and climate dialogues and thus in climate action in Ireland. By synthesising international best practice and analysing the National Dialogue on Climate Action process, this research contributes to implementing innovative, intersectional strategies for collaboration, communication models and tools for raising awareness and mobilising societal change on environmental and climate issues at local and national levels. The research outputs provide clear and flexible guidelines that can be adapted to different contexts, sectors and audiences by practitioners, researchers and authorities. Outputs include indicators that measure the success of participatory processes and the effectiveness of strategies, communication models and tools within and beyond the National Dialogue on Climate Action. C-CHANGE directly informs stakeholder, citizen and community engagement, which in turn provides the impetus and motivation to act on the environment and climate change, thereby accelerating our transition to a net-zero and sustainable future.