As the Government consults the Climate Change Committee on delivering the UK’s new emissions reduction target, CAST offers its perspective. While the goal is bold and necessary, Keir Starmer’s assertion that we can achieve it without any changes to people’s lifestyles is misguided, and unhelpful.
CAST’s partnership with Pledgeball, a charity rallying the sports community to accelerate systemic change, will enable CAST to drive meaningful climate action by harnessing the power of sports fans across the UK. We are thrilled to announce CAST’s partnership with Pledgeball – one of our key partners for Phase 2…
Words by Dr Chantal Sullivan-Thomsett, Senior Research Associate After Labour’s landslide victory, there was an audible sigh of relief from many environmental advocates. E3G, for example, deemed it a ‘super strong mandate for ambitious climate action and green investment’, with the party’s pledge to decarbonise the UK’s energy supply by…
CAST has received a further five years of funding from the ESRC for Phase 2 of our research. We will be focused on tackling hard-to-change behaviours – aka ‘sticky issues’ like flying and eating meat – in order to accelerate social transformations to net zero.
We explore four insights from the CCC’s 2024 Progress Report that highlight the necessity of social science in the pursuit of Net Zero.
Photo Credit: The Active Well-Being Society (formerly Big Birmingham Bikes) / Ashden (Words by Climate Barometer team, originally posted on the Climate Barometer blog) It’s well established that the UK climate sector is very unrepresentative in terms of ethnic diversity – but climate opinion data is too often under-representative too….
A new CAST report highlights the importance of putting people at the heart of climate change action and reveals how policymakers and practitioners can better engage people with climate initiatives.
New data from the re-launch of the CAST Data Portal: Public views on climate, drawn from four years of research on public climate perceptions from the UK, Brazil, China and Sweden, reveals that public concern about climate change is still high and people are supportive of urgent action. From 2020-2023,…
CAST Director Professor Lorraine Whitmarsh MBE stars in the ActNowFilm premiering at COP28 as one of 30 climate experts from across the world in conversation with youth climate leaders calling for young people to be at the frontline of global climate policymaking and negotiations. The ‘ActNowFilm: youth climate leaders in…
Our latest CAST report on a pilot project on repair and reuse initiatives, as part of a collaboration with Keep Wales Tidy, shows they are an effective way of preventing waste and providing community benefits to urban and rural communities in Wales. In our latest CAST report: ‘Circular Economy in…
Our latest CAST briefing on motivating a low-carbon workforce shows Cornwall Council staff are very concerned about climate change but knowledge gaps prevent them from taking action. As part of our research commissioned by the Cornwall Council (CC), we published a briefing resource: ‘Motivating a low-carbon workforce – Insights from…
Words by Dr Dan Thorman, Professor Wouter Poortinga and Dr Katharine Steentjes CAST researchers respond to the Prime Minister’s ‘new approach’ to Net Zero and discuss how this announcement will impact the UK meeting its climate targets. The Government’s U-turn on climate policy is completely at odds with the direction…
© Photography by Beryl Bikes A new CAST survey report, produced in collaboration with Cornwall Council as part of a year-long project, has revealed that Cornwall residents are more concerned about climate change than the rest of the UK and strongly back climate action. In our new survey report: ‘Cornwall…
A new research paper by CAST Associate Director Professor Wouter Poortinga and co-authors Dr Christina Demski and Dr Katharine Steentjes: ‘Generational differences in climate-related beliefs, risk perceptions and emotions in the UK’ examining differences in attitudes towards climate change, reveals younger people experience more fear, guilt and outrage over the…
Words by Dr Steve Westlake, CAST affiliate (prev. Knowledge Exchange Associate) The Climate Change Committee (CCC) has delivered another blunt assessment of the UK government’s climate track record, and it’s a very mixed picture. The CCC’s latest Progress Report states that “a coherent public engagement strategy on climate action is…
© Photography by Crispin Hughes Words by Dr Stuart Capstick CAST Deputy Director and Theme 3 lead Dr Stuart Capstick discusses his experience at ‘The Big One’ climate and nature protests as part of Scientists for XR which took place in central London from 21-24 April 2023 where people from…
CAST PhD Researcher Briony Latter and CAST Affiliate Dr Adam Corner informed an essential travel guide ‘Green Travel Guide for Festivals and Events 2023’ by live event industry charity ecolibrium via a CAST Impact Fund project exploring how to communicate effectively with live music audiences on their travel choices. The live…
Our CAST Director Professor Lorraine Whitmarsh MBE has joined the Wales Net Zero 2035 Challenge Group, which officially launched its first challenge last month: How could Wales feed itself by 2035? Lorraine shares why the Group’s work with the Welsh government and Plaid Cymru is crucial in helping the UK…