The Great Environment Debate 2012

Friday 9th November 2012 Bristol Universitys Great Hall, Wills Memorial Building Queens Road, Clifton, Bristol BS8 1RJ 10 AM - 2.30 PM Lunch Provided Programme
09:30-10:00 10.00-10.10 Arrival and Registration Welcome and Introduction Alice Peck, University of Bristol Rebecca Nestor, Learning for Good Part 1: Climate Change Science Ruza Ivanovic, University of Bristol Part 2: Challenges for Citizens and Households Dr Eldin Fahmy, University of Bristol Comfort Break Part 3: Challenges for Communities tbc, University of Bristol Part 4: Challenges for Government Dr Malcolm Fairbrother, University of Bristol Lunch Break Part 5: Small Group Feedback: What do you want to do about climate change? Presentations using flip chart visualizations Closing Remarks Rebecca Nestor, Learning for Good End of Event

10.10-10.30

10.30-10.50

10.50-11.10 11.10-11.50

11.50-12.30

12.30-1.15 1.15-2.20

2.20-2.30

2.30

Introduction
The Great Environment Debate 2012 at Bristol University will engage young people in one of the most important and pressing challenges of our time: climate change. Young peoples voices in the climate change debate are important, and young people should be actively encouraged to debate such issues in public life. Accessible, engaging talks on climate change related topics will be given by experts from Bristol Universitys major new environmental research institute, the Cabot Institute. What makes this event particularly exciting is the participatory format. We will engage young people in a participant-led group activity and debate: What do you want to do about climate change? Students will discuss and debate the issues raised during the seminar sessions. Each group will be facilitated (but not directed) by one of our experts and will feedback the issues and potential actions in a presentation for the general audience using visualizations. Workshop Objectives By the end of this workshop, students will understand:
how human actions modify the Earths climate; some methods for investigating key social aspects of environmental issues; how measures to prevent climate change could impose bigger costs on some people than others; community-led initiatives for sustainable development; actions governments can take to make human life environmentally sustainable.

During the workshop, students will: 1. Participate in group brainstorming sessions and group discussions that relate to the impact of the greenhouse effect and global warming and the design of social policies for mitigation. 2. Form Environmental Action Plans and feedback Action Plans to the group using flip chart visualizations.

Presentations
Part 1: Climate Change Science This session focuses on climate change science, issues and controversies. Studies of climate change have discovered a connection between the concentration of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere and mean global temperature. Over the past three centuries (or more), the concentration of carbon dioxide has been increasing in the Earth's atmosphere because of human influences (like the burning of fossil fuels, extensive farming, deforestation). Higher concentrations of carbon dioxide enhance the atmospheres greenhouse effect, making the planet warmer, and there is strong evidence that we are already experiencing global warming due to this process. Ruza Ivanovic, University of Bristol Presentation 15 minutes Questions 5 minutes Part 2: Challenges for Citizens and Households This session presents findings from a quantitative study into the likely social distributional impacts of UK Government energy and climate change policies. The work aims to further the development of socially just and environmentally effective carbon reduction policies, by (1) revealing the distributional consequences of current and possible future policies to reduce carbon emissions from UK households and, (2) enhancing understanding of these social aspects of climate policy within energy, climate change and social policy arenas. Dr Eldin Fahmy, University of Bristol Presentation 15 minutes Questions 5 minutes Part 3: Challenges for Communities The voluntary participation of citizens in environment protection is a key piece of the sustainability puzzle, but this places new ethical burdens on behaviour, new forms of social responsibility and practices in everyday community life. This session considers community-led initiatives for sustainable development and public participation in policy development. tbc, University of Bristol Presentation 15 minutes Questions 5 minutes Group Work 20 minutes Part 4: Challenges for Government Why (Too Much) Pollution Happens and What Can Be Done About It This session explains the basic reason why humans pollute the environment too much, and why government action is usually necessary for solving environmental problems. (Some pollution is actually good, and this session will also explain why.) Climate change is an especially challenging environmental problem, because its global. But even individual nations acting alone can easily take big steps to reduce their contribution to climate change, without reducing human living standards very much at all. By simply ensuring that polluters pay a fair price for the right to polluteand that's not that hard to dogovernments can make human life environmentally sustainable. In that sense, climate change could actually be easier to solve than many people think. Dr Malcolm Fairbrother, University of Bristol Presentation 15 minutes Questions 5 minutes Group Work 20 minutes

GROUP WORK GLOBAL WARMING: WHAT CAN YOU DO? Format round tables with 8-10 students per table. Each table facilitated by a postgraduate student from Bristol University that stays with the same table throughout.

Task: You as a group need to decide what you could do to address the problem of climate change. Different presenters today will make the case for thinking in different ways about the issue of climate change, and they will recommend different kinds of actions you could take. Your task is to decide on a concrete action which you think would be most useful and feasible. Choose one of the tasks for your group from the three tasks below, and use the flip chart for brainstorming answers and to prepare your final action plan to feedback to the group in the last session of the day.

1.

Less wasteful community action plan

Create a community action plan for a less wasteful community that supports your views about global warming issues. Consider the extent to which individuals can be motivated to adopt pro-environmental behaviours, and what are the pro-environmental behaviours required? 2. Less wasteful school action plan

Create a school action plan for a less wasteful school that supports your views about global warming issues. Consider the extent to which individuals can be motivated to adopt pro-environmental behaviours, and what are the pro-environmental behaviours required? 3. Letter to the Prime Minister

Write a letter to the Prime Minister advising what government should be doing to cut carbon emissions by 2050 Support this policy with reasons, facts, and examples gathered during the presentations.