Author archive: Rebecca Willis

In July, we launched Climate Citizens: a new initiative aiming to change how people engage with the creation of climate policy. The project, based at Lancaster University, brings together a small team to investigate how we can transform climate policy from something that happens to people, to something that happens with people.

In September 2020, Climate Assembly UK, the Citizens’ Assembly commissioned by Parliament, launched its findings. Recent months have also seen an upsurge of Assemblies and Juries at local level. These innovative deliberative events are re-defining how the public engage in climate decision-making. The next step » Continue Reading.

The UK may see itself as a climate leader, with cross-party support for a net zero goal. But, last week, local politicians granted planning permission for a proposed coal mine on the West Coast of Cumbria. Burning the coal from the mine, to make steel, will release nine million tonnes of carbon dioxide into the atmosphere every year. That’s more than double Cumbria’s total current emissions. (There’s more on the background to the mine in this briefing.)

I first wrote about the mine more than a year ago, pointing out that it was a casualty of the ambiguities » Continue Reading.

This article was published in The Times Red Box column, on 9 July. The text below is a referenced version of the same article.

Could a remote spot in the far northwest of England become the new battleground in the culture wars? A new coal mine has been proposed on the Cumbrian coast, just up the road from me. Like Brexit or colonial statues, opinions are bitterly divided. To one side, it’s obvious that the mine should go ahead. Coal is part of the UK’s proud industrial heritage, and the new mine will provide much-needed local jobs, as well » Continue Reading.

This is not the blog I expected to write to launch my book. As I sit at my desk, on a Monday morning, the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic is hitting home. My kids are adjusting to a much smaller world, without school or friends. My older teen is giving my younger teen a maths lesson, while I agonise about whether it’s safe to let them go to the park. In the space of a few weeks, everything has changed.

My book, published just as the lockdown began, is about the climate crisis and democracy. Fundamentally, it’s about the relationship » Continue Reading.