Public attitudes to whole energy system change
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The document summarizes a research project examining public attitudes towards transforming the UK's whole energy system by 2050. The project uses multiple methods including public deliberations, an online scenario tool called My2050, and a national survey. Key findings include that the British public widely supports changing how energy is produced and used, and favors including high levels of renewable energy like offshore wind. National governments are seen as playing a large role in bringing about energy system changes. Successful public engagement was achieved through using mixed methods and addressing the public's long-term vision and values.
![Social Contracts Values and Intangibles
…in my eyes it may be a silly thing to say, why
have a world when you can’t visit it? Why have
other counties when you can’t go there. It seems
silly that we can’t visit other countries and
cultures and actually learn. What is there to
learn in life? (Nigel, London)
Jeremy:- And no way in the
world will I give up eating
meat, I don’t care, may the
world come to an end
tomorrow (Glasgow)
On flying…
Amy:- …Tenerife, I go a lot and my family used
to live in the states and I went a lot out there, so
here there and everywhere, I am a retired lady
now and I worked all my life, every day of
my life, and now I think, “well I should just
enjoy myself” so I do. (Glasgow)
Irene:- Something
I wouldn’t change
is not eating meat
[laughter and
agreement from
group] (Merthyr)](https://image.slidesharecdn.com/public-20attitudes-20to-20whole-20energy-20system-20change-131217095738-phpapp02/85/Public-attitudes-to-whole-energy-system-change-23-320.jpg)
Public attitudes to whole energy system change
- 1. Public Attitudes to Whole Energy System Change Nick Pidgeon, Catherine Butler, Christina Demski, Karen Parkhill Understanding Risk Research Group, Tyndall Centre and Climate Change Consortium of Wales, School of Psychology, Cardiff University, Alexa Spence Horizon Digital Economy Research, Nottingham University Edinburgh Policy Meeting, December 13th 2013
- 2. Project Background Multiple long-term national policy goals bring imperatives to transform the energy system Climate change, Energy security, Affordability, Environment
- 3. Whole Energy System Transformation
- 6. Project Background Publics are deeply implicated in how energy systems are configured Energy producers & consumers Citizens with voting powers Active proponents & protesters
- 7. Objectives 1) To identify key trade-offs in system change & stakeholder & public responses to these 2) To build knowledge and understanding of public attitudes, values and acceptability of energy system change 3) To create qualitative and quantitative data sets for examination of the perspectives of varied publics across the UK on whole energy system 4) To develop and utilise innovative methodological approaches for examining public values, attitudes and acceptability 5) To develop a range of generic materials that can be utilised as a basis for working with varied publics
- 8. Work Packages WP 1: Scenarios • Scenario Adaptation, Expert Consultation & Material Development WP 2: Qualitative WP 3: Quantitative • Deliberating Energy System Scenarios & Trade-offs • National (UK) Survey: Attitudes on Whole Energy System Transformations
- 9. Work Package 2: Public Deliberations 6 one-day workshops in 2011(Wales, Scotland, England) Capital Cities plus ‘energy locations’ Diverse sample: Gender Age Ethnicity Educational qualifications SEG
- 10. WP3 – Survey Sampling Nationally representative for Great Britain (n=2,441) in August 2012 Core samples for England, Scotland (n=500) and Wales (n=500) Conducted online 2-12th August by IpsosMORI Weighted by age, gender, geographical region and employment status
- 11. The my2050 tool
- 12. The My2050 tool
- 14. Parkhill, K., Demski, C., Butler, C., Spence, A. and Pidgeon, N.F (July 2013) Transforming the UK Energy System: Public Values, Attitudes and Acceptability Synthesis Report. Cardiff University and UK Energy Research Centre. Available from ‘Reports’ section at www.understanding-risk.org
- 15. Key Finding The British public wants and expects change with regard to how energy is supplied, used and governed. They do not prioritise the demand over the supply side, or vice versa, in terms of being a greater priority for change.
- 16. Key Finding 88% agree that Britain needs to radically change how it produces and uses energy by 2050. 86% Scotland
- 17. Findings: Energy Supply Strong commitment to renewable forms of energy production, and a corresponding shift away from fossil fuels. 73% Scotland Nearly 80% include high levels of renewables including offshore wind in their energy pathways.
- 19. Imagining Change – Non-Transition Negative conceptions of things not Non-transition - Biomass… seen It’s another oil and you would exploit countriesnonFiona - as involving real change (or who will allow you everyone else transitions) to have landendBiofuels, wars and such asandup with more wants that land so I think you would water issues. Cheryl:- Yeah it feels like a step backwards… it feels like come on guys, we can do something better than that. I don’t know what it is about it, maybe it is because it’s just burning stuff, it doesn’t seem very sophisticated or sustainable and it seems like they have just panicked and said we’ll just burn stuff. (Cumbria)
- 20. Technological Realism – and Politics of Place On Carbon Capture and Storage Jeff:- “See, I worry about that whenever humans try and transport something dangerous, they always make an arse of it somewhere along the line, like oil. The damage we have done with big oil tankers spilling out, we would have to transport this and store it and obviously I don’t know how that gets out, is it like a vapour or liquid or ice I don’t know, but if you leave humans to transport something from a to b at some point of them doing that they will make a balls up and it could end up back in the environment. That is just my opinions on humans, but we always make an arse of it somewhere”. (Edinburgh) Politics and history… Olivia:- It is not as bad, but I really don’t think we want to be the dustbin of the world for that kind of thing (carbon emissions) (Glasgow)
- 22. Public Acceptability of Energy Futures Demand Futures Demand Management Intervention v Interference Active management and control Rose:-… I don’t want somebody coming in and saying, “you can’t run that, you’re going to jail for putting that heater on all night”, but I do think something will need to be done because we need to stop, we know this, we know what we’re damaging… (Glasgow) Active Management… Ann:- That would force people to be more aware, like I’m terrible for leaving the monitor from the computer running when it could be switching it off. If I knew there was only so much electricity I would go around switching things off, if I wasn’t needing them. So it would probably be better… (Edinburgh)
- 23. Social Contracts Values and Intangibles …in my eyes it may be a silly thing to say, why have a world when you can’t visit it? Why have other counties when you can’t go there. It seems silly that we can’t visit other countries and cultures and actually learn. What is there to learn in life? (Nigel, London) Jeremy:- And no way in the world will I give up eating meat, I don’t care, may the world come to an end tomorrow (Glasgow) On flying… Amy:- …Tenerife, I go a lot and my family used to live in the states and I went a lot out there, so here there and everywhere, I am a retired lady now and I worked all my life, every day of my life, and now I think, “well I should just enjoy myself” so I do. (Glasgow) Irene:- Something I wouldn’t change is not eating meat [laughter and agreement from group] (Merthyr)
- 24. Public VALUES for Energy System Change Reducing the use of finite resources Avoiding waste Efficient Capturing opportunities Social Justice Fairness, Honesty & Transparency Reducing overall levels of energy use Environmental protection Availability and Affordability Naturalness and Nature Reliability Safety Long-term trajectories Autonomy and Freedom Interconnected Choice and Control Improvement and quality
- 25. Public VALUES We stipulate that acceptability of any particular aspect of energy system Reducing the use of Reducing overall finite resources levels of energy use transformations will, in part, be conditional upon how well it fits with Avoiding waste Environmental Availability and protection the value-system. Affordability Efficient Capturing opportunities Social Justice Fairness, Honesty & Transparency Naturalness and Nature Long-term trajectories Reliability Safety Autonomy and Freedom Importance of long-term trajectories commensurate Interconnected with these values Choice and Control Improvement and quality
- 26. Technological Realism – and Politics of Place Politics and history… Olivia:- It is not as bad, but I really don’t think we want to be the dustbin of the world for that kind of thing (carbon emissions) (Glasgow)
- 28. System Transformation National Government(s) are seen to play a large role in bringing about these change. National Government(s) 54% Energy companies 16% Individuals and their families 13% Environmental groups 3% The European Union 3% Local authorities 2% None of these 1% Don’t know 8% 54% Scotland
- 29. Concluding Comments Successful Engagement – Rich Set of Public Discourses Value of Multiple-Methods and ‘Whole System’ Public(s) Values – transitions need to address the public(s) Long Term vision Use of Interactive Tools (e.g. MY2050) Future Priorities
- 30. CU Consortium • Psychology, Cardiff University PI: Prof Nick Pidgeon Researcher Co-I: Dr Catherine Butler Researcher Co-I: Dr Karen Parkhill Researcher: Dr. Christina Demski Co-I: Dr. Lorraine Whitmarsh • Engineering, Cardiff University Co-PI: Prof Nick Jenkins Researcher: Dr Tracy Sweet Researcher: Dr Modassur Chaudry Researcher: Brian Drysdale • Architecture, Cardiff University Co-PI: Prof Peter Pearson • Psychology, Nottingham University (attached to Psych, Cardiff) Researcher Co-I: Dr Alexa Spence
- 32. MY2050 Worlds. Mean inclusion level (0-4 scale) Manufacturing Growth 1.11 Nuclear 1.2 CCS 1.57 Home temp. 1.58 Wind-land 1.8 Heating fuel 1.86 Fossil fuel reduction 1.87 Transport fuel 1.88 How we Travel 1.89 Biofuels 1.9 Wind- sea 2.12 Other Renewables 2.2 0.57 0.8 0.83 0.83 0.83 0.87 0.88 0.9 0.93 0.93 0.94 0.96 0.96 1 0 0.5 1 1.5 2.17 Business greenness Fossil fuel reduction Home effic. Business Other Renewables Wind- sea How we Travel Transport fuel Heating fuel Manufacturing Growth Biofuels Home temp. Wind-land CCS Nuclear Home effic. 2.34 0 0.5 1 1.5 2 2.5 Standard deviations
- 33. Deliberative Groups: Day Format Introducing reasons for whole energy system change • Presentation • Short surveys & Discussion Creating a scenario in small groups • DECC My2050 web tool & extra components omitted from tool • Guided discussion to prompt conditions, trade-offs, agreements, disagreements to form basis of social contracts. Reflecting on scenarios: Scenario narratives “BAU”, “Mixing it up” & “Low carbon living” • Small group discussions of each • Reflections on My2050 discussions to amend social contracts
- 34. WP3: Survey & my2050 Climate change, energy security and affordability Key energy supply options: fossil fuels, nuclear power & wind energy Electrification of heating, cooking and driving Demand reduction Demand side management Overall system change my2050 About my2050 Repeated questions Environmental values & technol. optimism Sample characteristics
- 35. Project Reports Butler, C., Parkhill, K.A. & Pidgeon N.F. Demski, C., Spence, A. & Pidgeon N.F. Available from ‘Reports’ section at www.understanding-risk.org
- 36. The My2050 tool
- 37. Favourability (-2 to +2) 2 Before After 1.5 1 0.5 0 -0.5 -1 Before and After the tool