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Engagement of and support to the third sector to take action on climate change 1. Scope of paper This paper provides a brief analysis of the engagement of and the support available in Wales for the third sector to take action on climate change, in particular the support for non-engaged, non-environmental organisations. The aim of this analysis is to inform the Commission about WCVA’s experience in this area1, the issues identified and recommendations for next steps. WCVA asks the Commission to consider the issues and support further analysis2 to feed into the Climate Change Commission’s Annual Report. 2. Third sector and climate change There is huge potential for the third sector to tackle climate change, both in the size of the sector and its breadth in areas of interest. The variety of the third sector ranges from local community groups active in climate change e.g. Transition groups, groups of volunteers supporting energy reduction, through to national organisations and networks interested in areas such as children’s rights (see Annex A for details of third sector). Categorisation can also be made as “communities of interest” (organisations acting on a particular area of interest, for example older peoples’ welfare) and “communities of place” (organisations working with a place based focus e.g. CVCs, development trusts, Communities 1st , Community Hubs). The scale of challenge of climate change requires that all areas of the third sector are all engaged and supported to take action, not just environmental organisations working in their local area. It is particularly important that the organisations which support the groups most vulnerable to climate change are engaged in order to help facilitate a just transition to a low carbon Wales and ensure that the already disadvantaged are not disproportionately impacted. Areas of action where it can have considerable impact include: Develop the infrastructure and social capitol that supports behaviour change and sustainable living As trusted intermediaries support behaviour change in way that clearly links to the issues the beneficiaries and communities already care about includes work with Climate Change Leadership Group, events held across Wales, evidence/research reports, work with networks and engagement with other key stakeholders 1 Further analysis could include Round Table Discussion with key stakeholders to be held in November supported by Commissioner and Commission secretariat; additional mapping of support provided by agencies across Wales 2 1 Protect or support it’s beneficiaries to cope with the changing weather patterns and extreme events Campaign and advocate for a more sustainable future, including consideration of social justice issues within policy and support Reduce organisational and community carbon footprint contributing to Wales 3% reduction target 3. Scale of action in third sector Environmental organisations in the third sector are already doing a lot of work to tackle the impacts of climate change, mitigating future damage and adapting to the future. There are however, no comprehensive figures on the scale of this activity in Wales. WCVA figures identify 33,087 organisations, branches or groups in the third sector (July 2012). Of these, 1,637 are classed as having an interest in the environment (biodiversity, conservation, sustainable development). This is approximately 4% of the third sector. This highlights the large scale of potential activity on climate change within the third sector for non-engaged, non-environmental organisations. It is not clear how from our categorisation many of these environmental organisations are taking action on climate change or how many non-environmental organisations are also taking action. WCVA is unable to identify alternative sources of this information although there are pockets which hold relevant information. For example, local infrastructure organisations (CVCs), national resources (Welsh Government /Environment Wales/Ground Work/Cynnal) and projects (Pathfinders). There are also some local projects which have already mapped activities which offer an insight to what could be achieved. E.g. Cardiff Transition’s Sustainable Cardiff map http://cardifftransition.com/mapping Recommendation Work with agencies to identify the scale of action across the third sector via collating existing sources of information and identifying where further data collection is required. 4. Support for action on climate change The third sector is unlikely to treat climate change as a priority without intervention. Climate change is an issue too many for most non environmental organisations therefore they need to be lead and supported to take action if they are to be successfully mobilised. Generic support for the third sector to take action can be classified as including: o information (meaningful and accessible) 2 o o o o o o capacity building and training networking grants/funding development (tailored, ongoing support development support and advice that deepens with progression) voice / influence (local and national decision making and service delivery) This range of support needs to be available for the third sector to access at the point when it’s needed for any given organisation’s particular journey. This should include non-engaged, non-environmental organisations wanting to know how they can take first steps to tackling climate change through to environmental organisations undertaking complex behaviour change projects. a) Meaningful engagement and support for non-engaged and non-environmental organisations Through WCVA’s Climate Change Leadership Group3 and work with our stakeholders, we have identified that: There is no clear route for developing action on climate change. The services available are viewed as a patchwork of differential support rather than an easily accessible and progressive pathway which is meaningful to the users. There is no direct, easily accessible support for larger non environmental third sector organisations and networks wanting to reduce their carbon footprint understand impacts on their beneficiaries and integrate climate change into their work programmes. The groups most vulnerable to climate change are often unaware of the impact of climate change and support the support available. The majority of the engagement and support appears to be for environmental, place based organisations already taking action on climate change. Research by the Green Alliance, ‘New Times New Connections’ identified that for those third sector organisations that are interested in climate change, many are at the very initial stages of understanding what climate change means for them and finding ways to support that process is vital. This needs to be meaningful engagement and support -not just greening their approach (reducing carbon) but also identifying the intrinsic links between their motivations for doing so and their core work. WCVA established a third sector leadership group on climate change in 2009 to involve organisations from the across the sector in addressing the implications of climate change within their organisations. A key aim was to focus on the engagement of the “non –environmental” third sector to identify what works and how to further support the sector to engage with climate change. 3 3 Their identified success factors for meaningful engagement and action by third sector on climate change are: : The research suggests that umbrella organisations are ideally placed to jump start the process of organisations understanding the relevance of climate change to their work. They can make the links between climate change and core missions and engage their members with the impacts and opportunities in the context of issues they care about and in a language that resonates. In light of their potential to cascade mobilisation, any support for organisations in understanding the relevance of climate change to different issues should prioritise umbrella bodies. There are a number of models of meaningful engagement and support that could be replicated. NCVO Vulnerable Groups project; Cynnal Cyrmu's work with arts and community councils umbrella organisations; WCVA’s work with the Climate Change Leadership Group, Equalities and Human Rights Coalition and events on Building Resilient Communities. The Development Officers of the Supporting Sustainable Living Grant are currently exploring projects for third sector interest umbrella organisations and their networks, for example, One Voice Wales. This is an approach that currently does not appear to receive appropriate and sustained consideration through any existing agencies in Wales. WCVA has provided some from its core services4; however this is not sufficient for the scale of the third sector that could be engaged to take action. WCVA is using this recommended priority of working with umbrella organisations through the Third Sector Partnership Council members5 . WCVA want to be able to Support includes the Climate Change Leadership Group, Information Sheets, Case Studies, events and training. 5 TSPC funding to support networks would include need for organisation to reduce carbon footprint and disproportionate information on climate change to network. Offer a support package for umbrella/networks help with this work. 4 4 recommend and direct these umbrella organisations to the support that is needed to have meaningful engagement and support as detailed above. Recommendations: Discussion with delivery agencies to identify existing support programmes which could meet the identified success factors for engaging and supporting the non-environmental third sector. Consider the development of additional programmes and projects to fill the gaps. b) Grants Grants are an essential aspect of support for organisations to take action on climate change. There are a range of types of grants that could be offered. These include: small amounts of money which are non-prescriptive funding which comes with development support funding which is prescriptive in its requirements Current funding for action on climate change from the Welsh Government is the ‘Supporting Sustainable Living Grant’. Our brief analysis suggests that it supports innovative and valuable behaviour change projects which currently focus on carbon reduction. It primarily supports third sector organisations that are environmental and already engaged in climate action or have received considerable development officer support. Environment Wales offers a very successful grant and support programme which does include climate change projects. As it is currently resourced, it does not have the capacity to support the scale of action required. It also not currently structured to meet the needs of entire third sector, particular larger non - environmental groups wanting to take action to explore links with core activities. It therefore appears as if there is no funding available for organisations who want to take initial, demand led, capacity building action on climate change. Welsh Government previously provided the Climate Change Grant which offered this. Its evaluation report highlights organisations taking a variety of projects, most from nonenvironmental, previously non engaged organisations. It provided a highly cost effective approach to supporting action on climate change. Recommendation Welsh Government provides a grant scheme which supports demand led, capacity building action by organisations. 5. Engagement and Behaviour Change The Climate Change Engagement Strategy is identified in Welsh Government’s 5 Annual Report as the key strategy for supporting the third sector to take action on climate change. The Climate Change Leadership Group has raised some potential issues about applying this approach the third sector these include: The third sector is unlikely to treat climate change as a priority without intervention. They therefore need to be lead and supported to take action if they are to be successfully mobilised to change behaviour6. Climate change engagement is not just about delivering behaviour change. Behaviour change should be viewed as one of the key outcomes from climate change engagement, not as the sole methodology for engagement. The Welsh Government’s Engagement Strategy does not appear to support areas of engagement and action on climate as detailed above. Although social marking is empirically well supported as a method of bringing about specific behavioural changes, there are limitations with this approach to climate change engagement7 The ‘values’ approach to engagement and behaviour change8 is more naturally affiliated to the third sector The Pathfinders research will be important in understanding the capacity and role of third sector in behaviour change. Recommendations Explore how the programmes in the Engagement Strategy can be applied to the third sector, for example the segmentation research and the narratives project. Findings of Pathfinders research used to explore the role and capacity of third sector in engaging communities on behaviour change. Evaluation of SSLG to include effective application in third sector. Climate Change Commission to look at behaviour change in detail at a future commission meeting. CSE (2007) Mobilising individual behaviour change through community initiatives: Lessons for Climate Change 7 Corner, A., & Randall, A. (2011). Selling climate change? The limitations of social marketing as a strategy for climate change public engagement. Global Environmental Change, 21(3), 1005-1014. 8 A values approach such as ‘Common Cause: The Case for Working with Values and Frames’ 6 6