Dialogue to Speed Transition to Net Zero Perth & Kinross

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Innovate UK
Innovate UK
Innovate UK
Innovate UK
Innovate UK

£314,425

March 31, 2023

June 30, 2023

The UK is committed to drastically reducing greenhouse gas emissions, in order to do our fair bit to help limit the disastrous impacts of global warming. Thanks to supportive state policies, there has been a technological revolution in renewable energy in the last 20 years; wind and solar power are now the cheapest forms of electricity generation. Since the war in Ukraine, we also realise that these are good for energy security. We will need more renewable energy but it is also clear that we cannot rely only on such 'supply-side' measures and wait for further technological breakthroughs. We need to simultaneously address demand-side issues and overcome non-technical barriers to the adoption of cleaner technologies and less wasteful behaviours: from heat pumps, electric cars and smart meters to better home insulation and more walking and cycling. Some of the barriers we want to address are about perceptions of issues and institutions, feelings of agency and control and concerns about place and wider issues, All of these need to be explored and addressed if we are to see greater progress towards Net Zero targets and greater uptake of some of these technologies.

Each part of the country must do its fair bit, and this project explores how the residents of Perth & Kinross can speed up our transition to a low-carbon future. By organising 'hackathons' and other events, the council will empower young people to articulate their vision of how their village or neighbourhood should start to look in the near future. These sustainability visions will be shared with older residents for a community-wide discussion about the changes we need to make collectively, the difficulties that some people may fear (or may indeed encounter) and the local benefits we should seek to share (e.g. cleaner air, less noisy traffic, more local green jobs). These local 'intergenerational climate action dialogues' will feed into a larger 'climate assembly', a regional event involving citizens and local businesses which will inform and improve council policy, and help us to develop new low carbon projects that are locally developed and supported. We will also hold focus groups with the public and consult with representatives of sectors such as the business sector to probe issues and barriers that relate directly to them.