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Dr Sofie Roberts

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While climate change happens globally it is felt locally, in the places where we live and to which we feel attached. Place-based approaches are therefore crucial for effective climate mitigation. In this seminar I report relevant insights about community engagement and perceptions of local climate action, gained through two short projects: one analysing grassroots climate action and the other of top-down interventions.

In the first half of the talk I discuss a recent collaborative study with GwyrddNi, a movement of social enterprises working together to empower communities to deliver the actions needed to tackle the climate emergency. Our study addressed the social and communicative dynamics around community assemblies including associated challenges and how academic support can help establish best practices through research collaboration.

Next, discussion will turn to the recent project in partnership with the UK Centre for Ecology & Hydrology and Denbighshire County Council, which examined community perceptions of new greenspace interventions in Rhyl by inviting residents to share their thoughts about environmental changes in their neighbourhood.

I will discuss the ways in which climate engagement can be improved by tapping into localised community discourses and cultural heritage, weaving climate action into broader community narratives that are anchored in place attachment and concern for the locality and people’s ‘home patch’. Future work will address the generalisability of these findings across localities, identifying generic principles that motivate and empower communities to engage.

Professor Mark Hughes

Aalto University, Helsinki

Buildings and building construction have a massive impact on the environment and reducing this impact is imperative if we are to have any hope of limiting climate heating to no more than 2 oC let alone 1.5 oC. A paradigm shift is urgently needed. It is generally acknowledged[1] that wood construction is an ecological solution, helping mitigate climate change; wood products store atmospheric carbon sequestered by trees during their growth and replace carbon-intensive materials like concrete and steel. Although building in wood has been identified as an important way to decarbonize the built environment, sourcing timber for wood products should consider all the values of the forests to avoid overharvesting, biodiversity loss and damage to other ecosystem services. If we are to build within ‘planetary boundaries’ we should be using all of our resources, especially forest resources, far more frugally and thoughtfully. To drastically lower impact, first-and-foremost we should stop demolishing buildings and extend their lifespan as much as possible! Longer-lived buildings reduce the consumption of resources, lower construction emissions and reduce the production of waste. So, new wood buildings should be designed for ease of adaptation and for disassembly, and they should be built to last, whilst the lifespan of existing buildings should be extended as far as possible, and they should be thought of as valuable stores of materials. A shift in mindset and in practice is urgently needed! These themes will be explored.

Mark Hughes holds a BSc in Mechanical Engineering, a MSc in Forest Industries Technology, and a PhD in Wood Science. After obtaining his PhD in 2000, he worked for 6 years as a research manager at the BioComposites Centre, ��ɫֱ��. He moved to Finland in 2006, taking up a position at Helsinki University of Technology (now Aalto University), first as research manager and then as full professor, with effect from 1st January 2007. His research interests are diverse, ranging from structure-property relationships in wood and composite materials, through wood modification, to the use of wood in resource-efficient construction. In the past 10 years, his research has focused on improving the sustainability of wood construction by using it to enhance the energy-efficiency of buildings as well as studying how circular economy principles might be applied to the wood building value chain. He has authored or co-authored over 115 publications that have appeared in the scientific literature, seven book chapters and contributed to a large number of conferences and other events over the years. He is the head of the Creative Sustainability program at the School of Chemical Engineering at Aalto University.   

Dr Erin Roberts

Cardiff University

The transition to a low-carbon energy system so far has been presented as a historical break from an extractive “subterranean energy regime” (Huber & McCarthy, 2017).  Yet, a (re)turn to subsurface resources is increasingly recognised not only as a potential means of sating societal demand for energy whilst realising net-zero commitments, but also as a means of revitalising (post)industrial places long reliant on fossil fuels. While numerous studies have examined how publics perceive low-carbon technologies above ground, little is known about the ways in which people view them in a subterranean context, and how these conceptions relate to environmental values and ideas about environmental change. In this paper, we compare public responses/concerns to proposed subterranean energy interventions at two case sites: an offshore Carbon Capture and Storage (CCS) facility connected to a large coal-biomass co-firing plant in the north of England, and a Geothermal (mine water) District Heating scheme in an ex-mining community in south Wales. Drawing on insights gleaned from interviews and focus groups, we highlight how perceptions of these novel underground technologies are mediated by varying cultural representations, degrees of familiarity, moral stories and narrated experiences- all intimately bound to the historical context at each case site.

Erin Roberts is an interdisciplinary environmental social science researcher based in the School of Social Sciences at Cardiff University. Her research interests relate to the ways in which place, culture, identity, and climate policies intersect and interact, and the implications that these might have in terms of environmental justice; all of which are pressing concerns in the societal transition to net-zero. To date, Erin’s work has spanned many topics, including exploring the everyday energy practices of (predominantly off-gas) rural households; relationally valuing nature for wellbeing at the coast; attending to residential atmospheric sense-making in polluted urban places; and most recently, exploring public perceptions of novel CO₂ removal techniques in UK agriculture. 

Hannah Johnson and Chloe Corbyn

This session will give participants an insight into the complex relationship between researchers and politicians, an overview of how policies and laws are made in Wales, how to negotiate the two worlds of policy and research, tips and opportunities for engaging with the Senedd, and a case study.

Hannah Johnson leads the knowledge exchange programme in the Welsh Parliament/Senedd Cymru, which aims to strengthen links between the parliament and the research community. She has more than 12 years of experience in parliamentary research around the world, specialising in equality and human rights. She also provides advice at an international level for a number of parliaments and democracy support programmes, including for the UN and the EU, and has an LLM in human rights law.

Chloe Corbyn is a Senior Researcher, working in the environment and transport team at Senedd Research. She has over 20 years of research experience, both in universities and the public sector. She is the lead researcher for climate change, decarbonisation and air quality, and leads cross-Senedd work on the Well-being of Future Generations Act. Her legislative experience includes scrutiny of the Environment Wales Act 2016, and more recently legislation on single use plastics, and air quality and soundscapes.  

Roy Arindam

Sobuj Prithibi (climate change communications platform)

Dr Giuseppe Forino

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The Clicher project aimed at exploring ways in which the publics, stakeholders and policymakers view cultural heritage (inc. the value they place on its preservation) and the existential threat those cultural assets are now facing in terms of a changing climate and its associated threats. The project has been funded by the NERC Cross-discipline research for Discovery Science and addressed the following research question: How can valuing cultural heritage better aid the publics understanding of climate change? In February 2023, we have conducted two workshops at Plas-y-Bwlch with local communities, practitioners, policy-makers and academics to explore perceptions and values of local communities about North Wales’ cultural heritage (i.e. storytelling, lived experiences, discursive reflections), and considerations around climate change, and related risk. In these workshops, different themes were discussed in recorded break-out groups. We have conducted a preliminary analysis of data from audio records, and retrieved main emerging themes. This analysis was presented at an outreach public event with stakeholders held at ��ɫֱ�� in March 2023. I will present and discuss these themes, highlighting challenges and opportunities for future research.  

Dr Giuseppe Forino is a lecturer in human geography at ��ɫֱ��. Giuseppe is an interdisciplinary social scientist with a background in human geography. He works at the intersection of socio-environmental relationships in the field of disaster risk management and climate change adaptation. Giuseppe has research and teaching experiences in Italy, Australia and UK, with fieldworks in Europe, Australia, South-East Asia, and Ecuador.

Dr Katherine Steele

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Rice breeding has contributed to a steady increase in global grain production over the past 50 years. The emphasis has recently shifted from improving yield to broader adaptations to environmental stresses and resistance to pests and diseases. A new rice variety brings benefits to rice farmers and other beneficiaries in the supply chain. Improvement of aromatic rice varieties is a major priority in many rice growing countries because their market value is compared to non-aromatic ones. Basmati rice started as a local speciality in the Punjab and has now become a global commodity. Breeders in India and Pakistan are developing new Basmati lines, many of which could be marketed internationally. Regulators have approved specific varieties which can be sold labelled as Basmati and set a limit for the quantity of non-Basmati permitted within Basmati products. This presentation will draw from my experiences of DNA fingerprinting Basmati rice for authentication and breeding and discuss policy issues surrounding its purity.

Katherine gained her PhD from the University of Nottingham in molecular plant pathology in wheat. She has been a staff member at ��ɫֱ�� for 25 years, starting with post doctoral research on drought tolerance in rice. She is currently a senior lecturer focusing on Sustainable Crop Production in the School of Natural Sciences. Her research and teaching span a wide range crop and plant diversity and make use of ��ɫֱ��'s Henfaes Research Centre and Treborth Botanical Garden. She was Director of Impact and Engagement for the College of Natural Sciences and led their REF 2021 Impact submission. She represents ��ɫֱ�� on the Wales Plant Health Evidence and Advisory Group.

Dr Liz Morris-Webb (��ɫֱ��) & Dr Tomas Buitendijk (University College Dublin)

We used a mixed-methods approach informed by Actor-Network Theory (and grounded in new materialism) to better understand the importance of local residents’ cultural connection(s) to specific places on the coast. We hope this knowledge will help to predict people’s likelihood to support or resist planned landscape changes.

Tomas Buitendijk is a Postdoctoral Research Fellow in the field of Blue and Environmental Humanities, based at the Earth Institute, University College Dublin. He previously completed his Ph.D research at Dublin City University's School of English. Tomas is currently working on the Ireland-Wales Ecostructure project, where he investigates cultural connections to the coastline. His work includes a coastal community study in south Co. Wicklow, Ireland, conducted together with colleagues at ��ɫֱ��. He is also carrying out a synthesis study on (Cultural) Ecosystem Services frameworks and the Environmental Humanities, and a study on Nature Based Solutions on North Bull Island in Dublin Bay.

Liz Morris-Webb is a Postdoctoral Researcher in the human dimensions of the marine environment, based in the School of Ocean Sciences here at ��ɫֱ��. Liz’s research interests are in the importance of people’s coastal / marine connections on their wellbeing, resilience to change and pro-environmental behaviours, particularly in the context of compliance with marine management and resilience to climate change. Her transdisciplinary work is informed by methods from environmental psychology, human geography and health sciences. The Irish community work presented here was funded by Ecostructure. Other work includes understanding what Brazilian fisherwomen need to be resilient to climate change (British Council funded) and informing the delivery of future marine education and ocean literacy through testing the efficacy of education materials on improving biosecurity behaviours amongst boaters (Ecostructure) and working with the All-Atlantic Blue Schools Network to engage schools around the region.