cast.ac.uk

5 key messages from five years of CAST research: New report

5 key messages from five years of CAST research: New report

Read our latest CAST report: 'Catalysts of Change: People at the Heart of Climate Transformations', and watch our animation summarising 5 key messages from five years of CAST social science research on climate change and how we can achieve the social changes needed to tackle climate change.

Our Vision

The Centre for Climate Change and Social Transformations (CAST) is a global hub for understanding the systemic and society-wide transformations that are required to address climate change. At the core of our work is a fundamental question of enormous social significance: how can we as a society live differently - and better - in ways that meet the urgent need for rapid and far-reaching emission reductions?

People at the heart of transformations

We want to understand how people can participate in transformation in their multiple roles as citizens, consumers, parents, employees, business leaders, policy-makers. This means recognising that people can act both directly to reduce emissions – like driving less – but equally have the ability to shape wider structural change – like changing organisational practices and shaping policies.

A focus on values and co-benefits

We set out to align the positive outcomes of action on climate change with those in other domains like health and wellbeing. CAST seeks to identify low-carbon futures and actions that also provide other co-benefits - like cleaner air, lower bills, more resilient or fairer communities.

"We want to work closely with people and organisations to achieve positive low-carbon futures — transforming the way we live our lives, and reconfiguring organisations and cities."

Prof. Lorraine Whitmarsh MBE, CAST Director

Explore our four areas of focus

Find out why we are focusing on four key areas: Diet, Mobility, Material Consumption and Thermal Comfort.

Our resources include policy briefings, working papers, academic articles, reports and other resources exploring the science of climate action.

We believe effective change requires working with people to understand their values and needs.

News from CAST

Our latest report

Could a better, fairer and lower-carbon society take shape when the coronavirus lockdown ends?

This blog was written by Dr Stuart Capstick, CAST associate Director, with input and advice from Dr Claire Hoolohan and Dr Charlie Wilson. It was originally published on Wales Online. For some time now, many of us working on climate change have been calling for radical change at all levels,…

The psychology of disruptive events: finding a ‘new normal’

This is a guest post from Dr Emily Cox, Research Associate in Cardiff University’s Understanding Risk Group. The research supporting this blog was funded by the UK Energy Research Centre, as part of a UKERC Phase 4 project on societal resilience to energy disruptions. Emily is a member of the…

Seedcorn Fund supporting decarbonisation interventions to launch in summer 2020

In summer 2020 CAST will be launching a competitive open Seedcorn Fund, which will make small pots of money available for practitioners, communities, or organisations who want to work closely with CAST researchers to co-develop and deliver low-carbon transformative initiatives. The fund will be open to non-academic organisations wishing to…

Pupils debate the role of individual and collective action

A few days before finishing school for their Christmas break, 120 key stage four pupils took part in Cardiff Museum’s annual debate day, organised in partnership with First Campus. This year the theme was ‘Making Personal Choices about Climate Change’ and CAST researchers were invited to get involved. Very often,…