Banter 109: 04Mar26 Musings on Collaboration, with Nick Drew

Collaborating at different scales, from local community initiaties to regional and national levels. Sociocracy. Inner Climate Response Alliance. Youth Engagement. Transition Towns. Toolkits

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Musings on Collaboration - presentation:

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Musings on Collaboration - Meeting Summary:

Mar 04, 2026 11:47 AM London ID: 834 5460 8536

Quick recap

The meeting focused on climate change adaptation and resilience, with Nick presenting on his work with the Climate Psychology Alliance and various climate initiatives. He discussed the challenges of engaging different scales of government and communities, as well as the importance of intergenerational dialogue. The group explored how to effectively mobilize public action on climate issues, with Ken mentioning a successful local election campaign in Gorton and Denton. Linda highlighted the need for psychological support in climate change communication, referencing an upcoming National Emergency Briefing film and framework. The conversation ended with a discussion on local adaptation strategies, with Nick suggesting resources like the Local Climate Adaptation Toolkit.

Next steps

• Graham: Contact Jamie at Zero Hour ([email protected]) to invite him to speak at the next Great Collaboration Group meeting.

• Graham: Complete and publish the knowledge base page with information and links for accessing and showing the National Emergency Briefing film in local communities.

• Ken: Organize a screening of the National Emergency Briefing film in his village hall and engage with local parish councils to encourage them to join or host their own screenings.

• Linda: Develop and publish the 7 Elements Framework with guidelines and resources for hosting effective National Emergency Briefing film screenings, in collaboration with the NEB core team and Mike Berners-Lee.

• Graham: Create a new page in the knowledge base to collect and share resources and toolkits for local climate adaptation and risk assessment.

• Linda: Facilitate the Greenhenley meeting for those interested in hosting invite-only National Emergency Briefing screenings for business, faith, and political leaders.

Summary

Climate Action at Multiple Scales

Nick presented on his experience working across different scales of climate action, from local community initiatives to regional and national levels. He discussed the challenges of decision-making in collaborative settings and introduced sociocracy as a potential solution. Nick also shared information about the Inner Climate Response Alliance, a new project funded through the National Lottery's Community Action Fund. He concluded by reflecting on the importance of working at the local community scale and building resilience in the face of climate change.

Youth Climate Initiatives and Support

The group discussed youth engagement in climate and environmental initiatives, with Nick sharing insights about a youth-focused film and transition town projects in Wales and England that aim to address young people's uncertainties about their future. Jane highlighted concerns about the lack of structured support for youth climate adaptation and resilience, noting that while some initiatives exist, they are not widely available or scaled. The discussion concluded with Graham raising questions about ethical considerations in youth research and the potential for intergenerational mentoring, with Jane sharing details about a Milton Keynes project involving the Open University that explores environmental careers with young students.

Climate Activism: Challenges and Strategies

The group discussed the current state of climate activism and the challenges faced since the peak of movements in 2019. David expressed concern about the retreat of large-scale demonstrations and the shift towards individual and local actions, while Nick highlighted the impact of COVID-19 and legal restrictions on gatherings. Ken shared updates on the National Emergency Briefing, a recent event aimed at engaging MPs, and mentioned plans to screen a film about it to raise awareness. The group agreed on the importance of local actions and community screenings to keep the climate crisis on the public agenda, with Sue emphasizing the need for adaptation strategies at the community level.

Emergency Video Release and Climate Concerns

The group discussed the National Emergency Briefing's upcoming video release on April 7th, which will be available for local communities to screen. Graham announced he was updating the knowledge base with information about obtaining the video link and spreading awareness through local networks. The conversation then shifted to a discussion about the human tendency to become passionate about environmental issues only to lose interest over time, with Nick suggesting that climate impacts are becoming more immediate and personal, leading to increased concern about ecosystem collapse within the next decade.

Climate Psychology and Adaptation Strategies

Linda discussed the importance of climate psychology in engaging people on climate issues, highlighting the need to create supportive environments for meaningful discussions. She introduced a framework called the 7 Elements Framework to help facilitate screenings of the National Emergency Briefing film. Linda also mentioned an upcoming meeting facilitated by her to discuss the "Henley Model," a replicable community resilience briefing approach. Nick provided insights on adaptation, emphasizing the importance of understanding both geographical and human factors at a local level, and suggested resources like the Local Climate Adaptation Toolkit. The group discussed the need for accessible risk assessment tools to help communities understand and respond to climate change impact

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Musings on Collaboration - Chat:

(Sorry about the large headings below - needed for AI indexing)

00:24:06 David Newman (Blackbird Leys): America Speaks had 6000 people in a room on tables of 10 discussing what to do with the twin towers site.

00:43:31 Sue Burton Battle Town Council: What’s the name of the film ?

00:43:54 Linda Aspey:

Support for Young People: https://www.climatepsychologyalliance.org/index.php/young-people

00:45:29 Linda Aspey: CMP - Teachers project film:

Teachers' project film: https://youtube.com/shorts/iRWGq_i7pbc?si=CMZxuaxgIhx-T_Mn

00:47:13 Jane Whild CPCC, Milton Keynes:

Milton Keynes project - They Beyond Project : https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QDkoXAUHhaE

00:49:28 Linda Aspey:

CPA next Youth Support space: https://www.eventbrite.com/cc/youth-support-space-3710809

00:57:11 Jane Whild CPCC, Milton Keynes: We are planning to show the National Emergency Briefing in Milton Keynes - have approached the cinema in our central MK Gallery.

00:59:57 Graham Stoddart-Stones - Great Collaboration - Bembridge: Podcast: https://www.outrageandoptimism.org/episodes?utm_source=chatgpt.com

01:00:08 Andrew Clegg, Martock, Somerset: I live in rural Somerset. I spend a lot of time wandering around and doing things the bits of our Parish away from the village itself - like helping to manage a little nature reserve. I never ever see any children. Where are they?

01:00:34 Ken Huggins North Dorset: Reacted to "We are planning to s..." with 👍

01:02:07 David Newman (Blackbird Leys): An inconvenient sequel was great.

01:02:43 Jane Whild CPCC, Milton Keynes: Are any of you responding to the National Planning Policy Framework where there is a tilt towards approval of plans, and the Design and Placemaking Planning Guidance is also out for consultation.

01:03:05 Jane Whild CPCC, Milton Keynes:

Design and Placemaking Planning Practice Guidance:

https://www.gov.uk/government/consultations/design-and-placemaking-planning-practice-guidance/design-and-placemaking-planning-practice-guidance

01:03:11 Dave Scarbrough Maidenhead/RBWM: NPPF - already have!

01:03:17 Jane Whild CPCC, Milton Keynes: Reacted to "NPPF - already have!" with 👍

1:04:10 David Newman (Blackbird Leys): "Dirty Business" is the film of

Windrush Against Sewage Pollution, with cameo appearances of local activitists playing themselves (e.g. Jo Robb). https://www.windrushwasp.org/

01:05:34 Jane Whild CPCC, Milton Keynes: Speaking of adaptation, Have you seen the plans to move water down the Grand Union Canal - scheme to bring water from the Midlands to the Southeast?

01:05:43 Andrew Clegg, Martock, Somerset: We have responed to NPPF - what struck me about the design and placemaking, and also BNG, is that they were two elements that had been written by people with very little experience of front line rural planning issues

01:06:03 Jane Whild CPCC, Milton Keynes: Reacted to "We have responed to ..." with 💡

01:08:38 Linda Aspey: 📢 Is your organisation/community group interested in organising a screening of the upcoming National Emergency Briefing film and mobilising your community on climate and nature? Please see here: https://app.gitbook.com/o/0k84O32WvC7WyHzCDU7c/s/V1LZ4mqWJXNbNi9oyyBX/~/edit/~/changes/870/most-frequently-sought-topics/generally-useful-websites/neb-national-emergency-briefing

(This next event has already happened......)Join us for a free online briefing on Thursday 5th March, 1–2pm — open to everyone across the UK.

Greener Henley is developing the “Henley Model” — a replicable Community Resilience Briefing that any organisation/community group can adopt and run locally. It combines an invite-only screening of the National Emergency Briefing film followed by an action-focused workshop designed to turn awareness into coordinated, measurable community action.

We believe this model can scale. And we want your help to shape it.

Community Action Groups Oxfordshire is hosting this event, kindly facilitated by Linda Aspey, on Zoom to enable interested groups to: 💡 Hear about the "Henley Model" and how it will work, including why invite-only and the workshop content ❓ Ask questions 🗣️ Share your ideas and help us refine the approach

👉 Register here

01:12:00 Dave Scarbrough Maidenhead/RBWM: Have people seen this? Has anyone else seen this Friends of the Earth data?? Worrying. May be useful for showing to people??

Friends of the Earth Flood Risk data: https://mapst.ac/foe/flood-risk?utm_source&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=5251404_CAMP%20%20Flooding%20data%20and%20NAP%20petition&dm_i=78W4,34K0C,327W8O,8O8QC,1,0,0,0#12.33/51.51902/-0.69101

01:12:16 Linda Aspey:

Local Climate Adaptation Tool (LCAT): https://lcat.uk/

01:13:36 Dave Scarbrough Maidenhead/RBWM: Linda: pls can you share Community Action Groups Oxfordshire info as I don't do LinkedIn?

01:13:52 Linda Aspey:

Community Action Groups Oxfordshire info: https://www.tickettailor.com/events/communityactiongroupsoxfordshire/2077597

01:15:12 Jane Whild CPCC, Milton Keynes: Thank you, really useful meeting. Bye

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Musings on Collaboration: Audio-transcript:

38 00:14:52.760 --> 00:15:04.169 Graham Stoddart-Stones - Great Collaboration - Bembridge: However, let me press on with this week. Wonderful to see you all, and let me introduce you to Nick, or rather, I'm going to ask Nick to introduce himself, as he's going to, I suspect.

39 00:15:04.310 --> 00:15:09.720 Graham Stoddart-Stones - Great Collaboration - Bembridge: Give us a whole new way of looking at things this morning, or afternoon. So, all over to you, Nick, please.

40 00:15:10.260 --> 00:15:14.540 Nick Drew, Wirral: Thanks very much, Graham. I'm just going to try and share my…

41 00:15:14.980 --> 00:15:20.120 Nick Drew, Wirral: PowerPoint, and I've, I've not put too much,

42 00:15:21.160 --> 00:15:37.870 Nick Drew, Wirral: into this, so it's quite a sort of a collection of bits and pieces I've pulled from other places, but it's really just to sort of start a bit of a conversation. So, my understanding, Graeme, is you sort of normally go for about sort of 20 minutes, and then ask for, you know, a discussion and debate, is that right?

43 00:15:37.870 --> 00:15:47.729 Graham Stoddart-Stones - Great Collaboration - Bembridge: Absolutely, yep. People are… feel free to go short on that, or long on that, it doesn't take much, and we… the questions and answers also go short on that.

44 00:15:47.730 --> 00:15:48.920 Nick Drew, Wirral: Right.

45 00:15:48.920 --> 00:15:49.440 Graham Stoddart-Stones - Great Collaboration - Bembridge: Very.

46 00:15:50.490 --> 00:16:04.380 Nick Drew, Wirral: Okay. Well, I was invited along, partly by Linda, so it's lovely to see you as well, Linda, and you might sort of recognise bits and pieces of this, but I thought I'd start off with a bit of an introduction, because

47 00:16:04.380 --> 00:16:21.070 Nick Drew, Wirral: I'm conscious that, like many of you, I'll probably wear different hats. This is my Climate Psychology Alliance board member hat, which I wear from time to time. But I'm going to sort of explain a little bit more about some of the other hats I wear. And also.

48 00:16:21.400 --> 00:16:27.749 Nick Drew, Wirral: Because for me, the sort of… the point of collaboration is to work across different organizations, and

49 00:16:28.220 --> 00:16:33.189 Nick Drew, Wirral: different perspectives. So, let me move that forward.

50 00:16:35.340 --> 00:16:43.830 Nick Drew, Wirral: So, a really important question for me, and I think, you know, we're all seeing what's going on in the news, and just this sense of…

51 00:16:45.480 --> 00:16:59.790 Nick Drew, Wirral: you know, from my perspective, just real sort of shock and dread, really, at what's happening in the world. So this question about what is my work to do at this time, which sort of feels like a bit of an ongoing…

52 00:17:00.040 --> 00:17:18.199 Nick Drew, Wirral: quest for people, really, sort of feels particularly relevant at this moment in time this week. But like many of you, I've been on a bit of a journey with this, so I've sort of got the benefit of moving through different perspectives on the climate crisis from a sort of rather,

53 00:17:18.250 --> 00:17:21.870 Nick Drew, Wirral: optimistic way of thinking that, oh yes, if we can just,

54 00:17:22.339 --> 00:17:41.180 Nick Drew, Wirral: reduce our carbon footprints, then things will be better, through to, sort of, well, we've got all the technology, so why can't we just put it all in place? Through to sort of having to think more widely about, well, how… how does society need to change? Through thinking, well, actually, we've… we've left all this far too late, so we're sort of at that point of thinking about collapse more now.

55 00:17:41.470 --> 00:17:52.309 Nick Drew, Wirral: And I'm sure, like others, I've been along this sort of journey of starting to sort of become more facing the reality of where we are.

56 00:17:53.380 --> 00:18:11.619 Nick Drew, Wirral: I've shared this with a few people in the past, and I find it quite a useful way to understand where people actually are on that journey, as a way to sort of start to have conversations with people who might be having different viewpoints, just about, you know, how far down that line they are of thinking things have really gone.

57 00:18:11.650 --> 00:18:14.430 Nick Drew, Wirral: You know, past the point where we can

58 00:18:14.840 --> 00:18:20.610 Nick Drew, Wirral: Can, expect to… to mitigate some of these… these worse effects of collapse.

59 00:18:21.430 --> 00:18:29.970 Nick Drew, Wirral: And, like others, I've sort of moved into, increasingly pushing for adaptation at the community scale.

60 00:18:31.160 --> 00:18:44.019 Nick Drew, Wirral: So that… that for me is… I've found this quite a useful way to sort of just understand where people are on their own journey. This is something that… that was produced by Kim Hare at the Heart Community Group.

61 00:18:44.330 --> 00:18:47.359 Nick Drew, Wirral: They're quite happy for people to… to use that.

62 00:18:49.520 --> 00:19:00.249 Nick Drew, Wirral: I wanted to explain a little bit more about me and the various hats bit as well. So, I am, as I said, a board member of the Climate Psychology Alliance.

63 00:19:00.490 --> 00:19:08.090 Nick Drew, Wirral: I'm also an advisor to the Client Majorities Project SAFER campaign, which stands for Strategic Adaptation for Emergency Resilience.

64 00:19:08.190 --> 00:19:19.869 Nick Drew, Wirral: And I'm still doing some work with the Transition Town Network in the UK, especially in Wales and England, through their project, Transition Together, and what's coming out of that.

65 00:19:21.370 --> 00:19:31.099 Nick Drew, Wirral: And I spent 3 years working with Communities Prepared. I believe you've had somebody from Communities Prepared speaking to this group in the past as well, so, hopefully that will sort of

66 00:19:31.360 --> 00:19:34.269 Nick Drew, Wirral: Not need me to go into too much detail.

67 00:19:34.670 --> 00:19:36.550 Nick Drew, Wirral: But really what… what…

68 00:19:36.800 --> 00:19:53.949 Nick Drew, Wirral: I've been sort of trying to understand myself in that, what is my work to do at this time, is what's the right scale to focus your efforts on? You know, there's things that you need to do at a local community scale, and there's things there where I've tried to found a local transition town, Planet Hezboll.

69 00:19:54.550 --> 00:20:07.840 Nick Drew, Wirral: And doing things at the rural scale, where there's a rural council-led, but not sort of exclusively rural council, climate partnership, which involves a lot of different organisations in different sectors.

70 00:20:08.690 --> 00:20:18.360 Nick Drew, Wirral: Through to things at the city-region scale, and there's, you know, a sort of increased agenda there with devolution and local government reorganization, thinking about, well, what

71 00:20:19.000 --> 00:20:26.039 Nick Drew, Wirral: What is the role, of that, that sort of middle tier between the sort of local councils and…

72 00:20:26.150 --> 00:20:27.750 Nick Drew, Wirral: and the UK government.

73 00:20:28.770 --> 00:20:35.009 Nick Drew, Wirral: But also things at the North West region scale as well. So, I spent some time working

74 00:20:35.140 --> 00:20:39.769 Nick Drew, Wirral: at the… what at the time was called the Local Energy Northwest Hub, but is now one of the…

75 00:20:40.070 --> 00:20:41.809 Nick Drew, Wirral: Net zero hubs.

76 00:20:42.300 --> 00:20:44.850 Nick Drew, Wirral: Looking at renewable energy projects.

77 00:20:45.030 --> 00:20:48.989 Nick Drew, Wirral: So, I, I've, over the last, sort of.

78 00:20:49.490 --> 00:20:55.219 Nick Drew, Wirral: 8 or 9 years, sort of worked at different scales and spent some time trying to understand

79 00:20:56.010 --> 00:21:00.610 Nick Drew, Wirral: where I could have most impact in terms of, what…

80 00:21:01.210 --> 00:21:08.459 Nick Drew, Wirral: What changes we can make to our system to prepare ourselves better, and to, to reduce emissions as well.

81 00:21:08.950 --> 00:21:25.519 Nick Drew, Wirral: And it's… it's actually felt to me that a lot of the importance is actually working between the scales, so how you… you manage to get those link-ups between, those different parts of the system, so that we're working up and down that sort of… that sort of nested system.

82 00:21:29.290 --> 00:21:42.110 Nick Drew, Wirral: Another important part of what I've learned from this, one of the roles on the previous slide was I was the coordinator for the Liverpool City Region's Year of the Environment in 2019.

83 00:21:42.110 --> 00:21:50.079 Nick Drew, Wirral: And this picture is from the launch event, where Steve Rotherham, the Metro Mayor, is launching the year environment with a group of

84 00:21:50.380 --> 00:21:55.070 Nick Drew, Wirral: A mixture of local council leaders and, local people from

85 00:21:55.300 --> 00:22:07.379 Nick Drew, Wirral: different organizations, such as the Recycling and Waste Authority, various Environment Agency colleagues, and, faith and voluntary sector people as well in the room there.

86 00:22:07.880 --> 00:22:08.720 Nick Drew, Wirral: Damn.

87 00:22:08.980 --> 00:22:30.879 Nick Drew, Wirral: But a thing that keeps cropping up in my work in this space is actually how do we make decisions together, and how do we decide who's making those decisions? I guess where you've got an elected Metro Mayor, there's sort of… there's a clear point of authority, but as you start to do work in community settings, it becomes more and more difficult to work out, how are we actually making decisions? You know, what's the process by which we make decisions?

88 00:22:31.080 --> 00:22:38.860 Nick Drew, Wirral: And certainly something that I found in, in working in that sort of city-region scale, multi-stakeholder

89 00:22:38.960 --> 00:22:48.629 Nick Drew, Wirral: campaign, really, for a year, was this thing of here, we're going to need a bigger room, because as you sort of increase the engagement with people.

90 00:22:48.630 --> 00:23:03.160 Nick Drew, Wirral: you know, the sort of traditional, oh, let's all get together in a room, you start to hit the limits of room size and room bookings. And this room is the council chamber in the Combined Authority Building in Liverpool.

91 00:23:03.400 --> 00:23:16.470 Nick Drew, Wirral: As you can see, that was… that was pretty full, and just trying to get agreements across, different cultures, different organizations becomes increasingly difficult in collaborating in this space.

92 00:23:17.480 --> 00:23:26.439 Nick Drew, Wirral: So something that I spent some time a year or so ago, looking into and then trying to implement was, sociocracy.

93 00:23:26.790 --> 00:23:33.569 Nick Drew, Wirral: I don't know if you've had anybody talking at these sessions about sociocracy, but it's certainly…

94 00:23:34.210 --> 00:23:42.870 Nick Drew, Wirral: something, that I have tried, in my work in the transition town movement to try and, implement

95 00:23:42.890 --> 00:23:55.979 Nick Drew, Wirral: And in other places as well. So, for example, within the Climate Psychology Alliance, some of the processes we're looking at are sort of more sociocratic, and we're trying to, to work out how we do some of this stuff. But I thought, just to…

96 00:23:56.150 --> 00:24:05.289 Nick Drew, Wirral: give a sort of brief overview. This is a slide from Sociocracy for All, and it's really just trying to give this sense of the key

97 00:24:05.670 --> 00:24:22.400 Nick Drew, Wirral: attributes of this sort of sociocratic system. So, the main thing is that it's based around circles, so you've got sort of small working groups who are working together, and those circles are linked through people who are sort of connecting people to help the information to flow

98 00:24:24.250 --> 00:24:34.300 Nick Drew, Wirral: It's, a different way of making decisions in terms of, people give their consent to a proposal that's being put forward into a circle.

99 00:24:34.680 --> 00:24:46.330 Nick Drew, Wirral: Rather than having to have either a sort of majority vote or some kind of complete agreement. So there's a sort of sense of, if nobody objects

100 00:24:46.560 --> 00:24:58.080 Nick Drew, Wirral: And if somebody does object, then the proposal is changed to try and find a position that everybody can agree with, and that improves the proposal going forward.

101 00:24:59.320 --> 00:25:07.219 Nick Drew, Wirral: But the idea, as the slide says, is to decentralize power, so that actually the people who are making the decisions are the people who are implementing them.

102 00:25:07.330 --> 00:25:08.180 Nick Drew, Wirral: Mmm.

103 00:25:09.020 --> 00:25:13.839 Nick Drew, Wirral: And it's… it's not without its challenges to try and work… work up a system like power.

104 00:25:14.240 --> 00:25:24.720 Nick Drew, Wirral: But that important question about who is making decisions is something that, especially when I've worked in collaborative settings, it keeps coming up again and again, and where are decisions being made?

105 00:25:29.470 --> 00:25:36.699 Nick Drew, Wirral: And… Another part of that sociocracy thing is actually about how we interact with each other as well.

106 00:25:37.120 --> 00:25:39.050 Nick Drew, Wirral: So, within…

107 00:25:39.410 --> 00:25:52.500 Nick Drew, Wirral: Sociocracy for All, they talk about, nonviolent communications as a really important, sort of bedrock, really, to, to help people

108 00:25:53.300 --> 00:25:58.299 Nick Drew, Wirral: To empathize better with each other and understand where each other are coming from.

109 00:25:58.830 --> 00:26:07.309 Nick Drew, Wirral: And nonviolent communications is something that was developed by Marshall Rosenberg. There's a nice… a nice book there, but it…

110 00:26:07.800 --> 00:26:25.220 Nick Drew, Wirral: it's quite a basic thing, really, which is that, we need to listen to each other, and we need to, to sort of… to speak as well. But the idea of nonviolent communications is there's a sort of… a bit of a pattern to the way that we both listen and speak.

111 00:26:25.650 --> 00:26:31.659 Nick Drew, Wirral: So there's a sort of… well, this is called a cheat sheet, but it's really just,

112 00:26:31.860 --> 00:26:34.380 Nick Drew, Wirral: The, sort of, the… the pattern that…

113 00:26:34.510 --> 00:26:42.620 Nick Drew, Wirral: you tend to use, so you'd start with an observation, and so when something happens, I feel

114 00:26:43.100 --> 00:27:01.529 Nick Drew, Wirral: upset, or annoyed, or angry, or whatever, because I have a need for, you know, sort of recognition or understanding. So would it be possible for you to, and then make a request about how you would… you would like the person to, to, to interact with you?

115 00:27:02.350 --> 00:27:05.829 Nick Drew, Wirral: And as a… as an approach,

116 00:27:06.330 --> 00:27:09.639 Nick Drew, Wirral: It starts to get people to, sort of, to…

117 00:27:09.830 --> 00:27:14.879 Nick Drew, Wirral: And to hear each other more fully, I think is probably the best way of saying it.

118 00:27:15.370 --> 00:27:17.460 Nick Drew, Wirral: So it feels like it's quite… oops.

119 00:27:17.690 --> 00:27:25.389 Nick Drew, Wirral: It feels like it's quite an important aspect of, collaboration. It's actually how we bring our whole selves to

120 00:27:25.630 --> 00:27:37.430 Nick Drew, Wirral: The interactions, and how we can both listen and speak empathically, and really understand what's going on for somebody, what the feelings that are involved in some of these things,

121 00:27:38.020 --> 00:27:41.069 Nick Drew, Wirral: And what are their basic needs behind it?

122 00:27:42.320 --> 00:27:43.090 Nick Drew, Wirral: And…

123 00:27:44.420 --> 00:28:00.400 Nick Drew, Wirral: And I also wanted to just… and I suspect that Linda Rivers might have touched on Active Hope in the past, but especially given what's going on in the world at the moment, it really feels important to just focus in on

124 00:28:01.580 --> 00:28:11.809 Nick Drew, Wirral: some of the inner dimension of what's happening in the climate crisis, and that's part of the work that I've done with Linda and others in the Climate Psychology Alliance.

125 00:28:12.300 --> 00:28:13.050 Nick Drew, Wirral: M.

126 00:28:13.460 --> 00:28:24.429 Nick Drew, Wirral: But just… just Joanna Macy, who many of you are hopefully aware of, who passed away last summer, but has spent many years, working in this space.

127 00:28:26.910 --> 00:28:42.469 Nick Drew, Wirral: And her quote there about, this is a dark time, filled with suffering and uncertainty, like living cells in a larger body, it is natural we feel the trauma of our world, so don't be afraid of the anguish you feel, or the anger or fear, because these responses arise from the depth of your caring.

128 00:28:42.590 --> 00:28:47.130 Nick Drew, Wirral: and the truth of your interconnectedness with all beings. And I just think that there's something

129 00:28:48.050 --> 00:29:02.980 Nick Drew, Wirral: deeply important and deeply human about that aspect of the climate crisis, and that's why I spend time with the Climate Psychology Alliance and others. And one of the things that

130 00:29:05.200 --> 00:29:19.130 Nick Drew, Wirral: that certainly I've… I've been involved in is, with both the work that ReConnects and Active Hope, which is… is quite a nice handbook for people who want to go through those processes of, of,

131 00:29:20.500 --> 00:29:27.870 Nick Drew, Wirral: Responding in a more… Let's talk about a more, sort of, whole…

132 00:29:28.020 --> 00:29:33.560 Nick Drew, Wirral: way, in terms of the system that we're in. So…

133 00:29:33.980 --> 00:29:43.709 Nick Drew, Wirral: being able to transform feelings of despair into empowered action, and I think as people understand the situation we're in, that becomes more and more important.

134 00:29:44.430 --> 00:29:49.050 Nick Drew, Wirral: I won't go into any more of that, but I'm sure we can talk about that in the questions a bit later.

135 00:29:49.050 --> 00:29:50.710 Pam Rosling, N Dorset: I'd like to restore it.

136 00:29:52.080 --> 00:29:59.230 Nick Drew, Wirral: I wanted to talk, following on from that, just briefly, about ICRA, which is,

137 00:29:59.550 --> 00:30:16.040 Nick Drew, Wirral: a new project that the Climate Psychology Alliance, along with the Climate Majority Project and the Mindfulness Initiative, have got funded through the National Lottery's Community Action… Climate Action Fund.

138 00:30:16.360 --> 00:30:26.760 Nick Drew, Wirral: And the reason I wanted to sort of make you aware of this is because of the collaborative nature of it. So, it's a partnership, it's a new partnership, it's three organizations coming together.

139 00:30:26.890 --> 00:30:42.599 Nick Drew, Wirral: Trying to, to find ways to engage with communities, both to create a community of practice around people who are doing some of that inner work practice, but also to engage with local communities where there is a need for that as well.

140 00:30:42.810 --> 00:30:44.870 Nick Drew, Wirral: And that feels like, from…

141 00:30:45.120 --> 00:30:51.159 Nick Drew, Wirral: the perspective of… of the Climate Psychology Alliance and the other partners. It's a really…

142 00:30:51.760 --> 00:30:56.850 Nick Drew, Wirral: sort of exciting moment, because I think this is the first time that we've seen funding

143 00:30:57.190 --> 00:31:06.709 Nick Drew, Wirral: being put into that… to this project at this kind of scale. So this is, one and a half million pounds over five years, so it gives… it gives some sort of sense of…

144 00:31:06.930 --> 00:31:16.090 Nick Drew, Wirral: The start of really building up some capacity across the UK in this area.

145 00:31:18.060 --> 00:31:37.429 Nick Drew, Wirral: And those are the partners of the Inner Climate Response Alliance, which I mentioned before. Sorry, there's a lot of acronyms in this space, and I'm conscious that, they won't all be familiar to people, but I just sort of felt that it's quite an exciting moment for us in CPA.

146 00:31:38.940 --> 00:31:41.100 Nick Drew, Wirral: And… Right.

147 00:31:41.290 --> 00:31:45.560 Nick Drew, Wirral: So I wanted to just come back to that scale question that I sort of…

148 00:31:45.740 --> 00:31:59.360 Nick Drew, Wirral: proposed at the start, really because what's… what's been going on for me is, although I… I've done previous roles, which are sort of greyed out in, on that… that sort of egg diagram.

149 00:31:59.510 --> 00:32:04.289 Nick Drew, Wirral: And it looks like there's a lot going on at the UK scale. What I'm increasingly

150 00:32:04.460 --> 00:32:09.250 Nick Drew, Wirral: Finding is the need to work much more at the local community scale.

151 00:32:10.220 --> 00:32:11.860 Nick Drew, Wirral: So,

152 00:32:12.000 --> 00:32:22.539 Nick Drew, Wirral: just on… on Monday, I was in a meeting of the… the World Climate Partnership called Rural, looking at what we're going to do over the next 12 months.

153 00:32:22.650 --> 00:32:27.499 Nick Drew, Wirral: And increasingly, sort of trying to work out how adaptation features into that.

154 00:32:27.990 --> 00:32:35.809 Nick Drew, Wirral: But part of this is also this sort of raising awareness of things like the National Emergency Briefing.

155 00:32:35.910 --> 00:32:40.569 Nick Drew, Wirral: Which hopefully people have heard about. But the…

156 00:32:41.460 --> 00:32:44.910 Nick Drew, Wirral: The need to try and raise awareness

157 00:32:45.030 --> 00:32:50.870 Nick Drew, Wirral: across the UK of the state, of the climate situation and what we need to do.

158 00:32:52.100 --> 00:32:53.200 Nick Drew, Wirral: So…

159 00:32:53.320 --> 00:33:02.439 Nick Drew, Wirral: I'm spending time in my local community, helping to think about how we organise a screening, and how we engage people in the local community in that space.

160 00:33:02.700 --> 00:33:04.599 Nick Drew, Wirral: And that feels…

161 00:33:05.460 --> 00:33:12.330 Nick Drew, Wirral: For me, like, where my focus is moving to at the moment, because it just feels that,

162 00:33:13.120 --> 00:33:29.540 Nick Drew, Wirral: there's such a strong need to build that local community resilience. That's what I'm… I'm seeing. Last week, I was at a conference in Manchester, which was looking at societal resilience, whole-of-society resilience.

163 00:33:29.670 --> 00:33:33.120 Nick Drew, Wirral: And… And… Just some of the…

164 00:33:34.260 --> 00:33:51.119 Nick Drew, Wirral: the, the potential risks that we're facing around water shortages and droughts and heat waves and so on. It just sort of feels we've really got to spend the time, getting to know our neighbours, building that local set of connections and resilience.

165 00:33:51.770 --> 00:33:54.589 Nick Drew, Wirral: And, yeah, that's… that's kind of where I'm…

166 00:33:54.730 --> 00:34:01.329 Nick Drew, Wirral: I'm increasingly moving towards, although I've still got those, sort of UK-scale

167 00:34:02.660 --> 00:34:08.330 Nick Drew, Wirral: Roles and responsibilities, so it's sort of trying to juggle those bits and pieces.

168 00:34:10.480 --> 00:34:20.439 Nick Drew, Wirral: So, that was the end of what I'd put together as slides, because I wanted to just sort of give you that quick run-through, and then stop for questions, really, and have some discussion around it.

169 00:34:26.550 --> 00:34:38.200 Graham Stoddart-Stones - Great Collaboration - Bembridge: Thank you very much, Nick. I'm still pondering a few questions which you've triggered thoughts in my head, but the one I was really keen on was,

170 00:34:38.199 --> 00:34:46.580 Graham Stoddart-Stones - Great Collaboration - Bembridge: How effective do you find the transition towns at getting people to agree more on things like climate change?

171 00:34:46.650 --> 00:34:50.199 Graham Stoddart-Stones - Great Collaboration - Bembridge: So, I note that there is something like…

172 00:34:50.920 --> 00:35:03.979 Graham Stoddart-Stones - Great Collaboration - Bembridge: 70-odd transition towns, or groups in the… or, sorry, 250-odd in the UK, which is out of a total of something like 1,200 towns, there's a way to go, but on the other hand, it's a pretty…

173 00:35:04.100 --> 00:35:15.130 Graham Stoddart-Stones - Great Collaboration - Bembridge: substantial lot to get moving, so are they… are you growing the transition towns and groups? And if so, how effective are they at getting climate change into the…

174 00:35:15.560 --> 00:35:17.770 Graham Stoddart-Stones - Great Collaboration - Bembridge: Order of battle, so to speak.

175 00:35:17.770 --> 00:35:25.710 Nick Drew, Wirral: Yeah, that's… that's a great question, Graeme, and it's one that I've… I've struggled with over a number of years, to be fair, because I… I…

176 00:35:25.710 --> 00:35:38.610 Nick Drew, Wirral: to sort of give a bit more background on that, when I moved to the Wirral about 10 years ago, there was a transition town that was happening in West Kirby, so I went along and got involved in what they were doing.

177 00:35:38.640 --> 00:35:46.380 Nick Drew, Wirral: And what I've learned from… from that, because then I went and spoke to, sort of, 7 or 8 different transition towns that were in the northwest area, where I live.

178 00:35:47.180 --> 00:35:49.409 Nick Drew, Wirral: And found that they were all very different.

179 00:35:49.650 --> 00:36:06.650 Nick Drew, Wirral: And they were all kind of driven by people's individual passions and skills and, you know, what they wanted to see happening in their community. Sometimes it was strongly based around the community need, and other times it was sort of, I would really love to do, I don't know, a solar project, and so that's what

180 00:36:06.650 --> 00:36:11.050 Nick Drew, Wirral: You know, our transition town will put a lot of focus into.

181 00:36:12.010 --> 00:36:19.209 Nick Drew, Wirral: So, because it's a grassroots movement, all the transition towns are all quite different.

182 00:36:19.670 --> 00:36:24.209 Nick Drew, Wirral: And part of the difficulty, and why the sociocracy thing is quite important, is that

183 00:36:24.580 --> 00:36:42.199 Nick Drew, Wirral: how you make collective decisions, and there isn't a sort of hierarchy and a top-down, you know, this is the direction we're going in, sort of leader-type person, becomes quite difficult. And, I think what… what tends to happen is that different.

184 00:36:42.200 --> 00:36:44.430 Graham Stoddart-Stones - Great Collaboration - Bembridge: Individuals in the community will get.

185 00:36:44.430 --> 00:36:48.980 Nick Drew, Wirral: Very passionate about a particular topic, and it might be litter picking, or it might be…

186 00:36:49.120 --> 00:36:55.349 Nick Drew, Wirral: I don't know, art installations, or it might be whatever that sort of really takes their, you know, their focus.

187 00:36:55.930 --> 00:37:01.919 Nick Drew, Wirral: So, in terms of the actual… how strong a response it is as a… as a sort of climate.

188 00:37:02.130 --> 00:37:05.370 Nick Drew, Wirral: Especially in, in terms of…

189 00:37:05.540 --> 00:37:14.269 Nick Drew, Wirral: emissions reductions is… is… it feels quite weak, to be fair, but what a lot of it is trying to do is to build that, sort of.

190 00:37:14.310 --> 00:37:33.909 Nick Drew, Wirral: stronger sense of community connection, which I think does help in terms of building resilience, going forward, so people spend more time doing projects. To some extent, you know, it's slightly immaterial what the project is, provided they are learning how to work together and to, to a

191 00:37:34.260 --> 00:37:47.389 Nick Drew, Wirral: effectively work on a common task that they've agreed, because I think that's… that's repurposable to do different things as the situation changes. But yeah, it does feel…

192 00:37:47.910 --> 00:37:49.389 Nick Drew, Wirral: that,

193 00:37:51.130 --> 00:38:07.579 Nick Drew, Wirral: what happened with the Transition Together project, which did have some lottery money, and it came to an end after about 3 years, and the transition felt that they'd got longer to put in place some of these structures. They thought they were going to have 10 years of funding, but then it stopped after 3 years.

194 00:38:07.580 --> 00:38:11.510 Nick Drew, Wirral: So there was a sort of sense of, okay, now we've got to move this out of

195 00:38:11.510 --> 00:38:16.279 Nick Drew, Wirral: A small number of paid staff into much more volunteer space.

196 00:38:16.380 --> 00:38:20.260 Nick Drew, Wirral: Which means that obviously things happen at a slower pace.

197 00:38:20.460 --> 00:38:23.439 Nick Drew, Wirral: And probably with a little bit more.

198 00:38:25.450 --> 00:38:44.430 Nick Drew, Wirral: you know, discussion around what should the right direction be, and crucially, how do we engage those other, sort of, 200 or so transition towns that are out there? You know, it comes back to this sort of representation and decision-making kind of questions that feel at the heart of

199 00:38:44.660 --> 00:38:47.759 Nick Drew, Wirral: Building a collaborative grassroots movement.

200 00:38:48.840 --> 00:39:13.030 Graham Stoddart-Stones - Great Collaboration - Bembridge: Yeah, the point of my question really was that the great collaboration is doing its best to get everybody to pull together in roughly the same direction, and I'm just intrigued to know what experiences have been encountered elsewhere, so that we can avoid making the same mistakes. And I think, by the same token, since we're really just trying to point people in a direction that could be helpful to them, we may well avoid

201 00:39:13.030 --> 00:39:24.549 Graham Stoddart-Stones - Great Collaboration - Bembridge: the battles, and certainly the idea of them coming very political is a real danger sign from my point of view. But anyway, I think Jane has got a question, so we'll pass it on to her, please.

202 00:39:25.830 --> 00:39:42.249 Jane Whild CPCC, Milton Keynes: Hello there, yes, hi everybody, this is my first banter meeting, and I'm a new parish councillor in Milton Keynes, but I've been active, a bit like Nick, in many groups in Milton Keynes over the last few years.

203 00:39:42.410 --> 00:39:52.939 Jane Whild CPCC, Milton Keynes: I'm also in a transition town in Milton Keynes. I joined them 2019, and they'd been going for… I think they've been going for over 10 years.

204 00:39:53.290 --> 00:40:02.830 Jane Whild CPCC, Milton Keynes: But they rely on a very small group of dedicated people. People come and go, over the years, and… but we're on a…

205 00:40:02.960 --> 00:40:17.559 Jane Whild CPCC, Milton Keynes: We're on an upward curve at the moment. We've also, got a climate action network that's formed in Milton Keynes, which I'm part of the committee on. And it does… it's really hard to get

206 00:40:18.090 --> 00:40:34.289 Jane Whild CPCC, Milton Keynes: to get organisations to come and join that network. But the ones… we've got about 19 so far, varying from climate cafes, repair cafes, so, you know, really trying to bring together people and get those good news stories out.

207 00:40:34.890 --> 00:40:42.859 Jane Whild CPCC, Milton Keynes: I've also been involved in a donut economics group for a few years. I don't know if you've done anything like that, Nick, and others.

208 00:40:42.960 --> 00:40:46.480 Jane Whild CPCC, Milton Keynes: And I found that really useful as a way of.

209 00:40:46.560 --> 00:41:03.969 Jane Whild CPCC, Milton Keynes: talking to different sectors. So we've got, you know, you can take that, talk to the local government officers or the councillors, but also to people at grassroots, and it's something, you know, people thriving within the planets, planetary boundaries is a very simple concept,

210 00:41:04.190 --> 00:41:21.630 Jane Whild CPCC, Milton Keynes: So, yeah, just to say, you know, yeah, I think transitions are doing well, but I think… I think there's a really, real need to engage youth, and especially with this, global situation happening. I come from a university background, I was an administrator, took redundancy about 3 years ago.

211 00:41:22.060 --> 00:41:29.820 Jane Whild CPCC, Milton Keynes: But the problem working with young people is the ethics, barriers to the ethics, you know, and I worry that those people aren't…

212 00:41:29.820 --> 00:41:42.740 Jane Whild CPCC, Milton Keynes: receiving the, you know, the youngsters aren't receiving the help or the way to engage positively because of these barriers we have in that, you know, obviously you have to safeguard and be so careful working with young people, but there needs to be more

213 00:41:43.120 --> 00:41:46.829 Jane Whild CPCC, Milton Keynes: You know, more done to sort of try and, try and engage them and…

214 00:41:47.070 --> 00:41:50.389 Jane Whild CPCC, Milton Keynes: The youth councils is a way of doing that, potentially.

215 00:41:51.030 --> 00:41:53.709 Jane Whild CPCC, Milton Keynes: So I don't know if any of you have had any ideas about that.

216 00:41:54.050 --> 00:41:55.860 Jane Whild CPCC, Milton Keynes: So, just throw that out there.

217 00:41:58.200 --> 00:42:05.250 Nick Drew, Wirral: I'll just respond briefly, James. I think I'll also be really interested to hear other perspective. So,

218 00:42:05.500 --> 00:42:22.950 Nick Drew, Wirral: on transition towns and youth, that was something that felt had been somewhat lacking in some areas, you know, across the country. I'm sure there were certain transition towns that had… had, you know, engaged with young people quite strongly, but it was one of the areas that,

219 00:42:23.130 --> 00:42:29.820 Nick Drew, Wirral: When there was lottery money for that project that finished a year or so ago,

220 00:42:30.340 --> 00:42:33.650 Nick Drew, Wirral: A youth caucus was… was sort of…

221 00:42:33.880 --> 00:42:51.940 Nick Drew, Wirral: called to bring the voices of youth, and as a result of that, there is a youth group that is sort of at the sort of the center of trying to determine what the future direction is for transition movement in Wales and England. So there's that sort of sense of their…

222 00:42:52.140 --> 00:43:05.159 Nick Drew, Wirral: involved right at the heart of the decision-making. They're doing their own set of projects, including a film, which is excellent. I've seen a screening of their film, which is trying to explain what it's like to be a young person in today's environment.

223 00:43:05.230 --> 00:43:20.930 Nick Drew, Wirral: So, this sort of sense of a lack of certainty, what kind of career do I want to do? What… should I go to uni? What should I do with my time? Some of the difficult decisions and the future that's facing young people, and that I found, was really powerful.

224 00:43:20.940 --> 00:43:25.589 Nick Drew, Wirral: And they're starting to do screenings of that, and then following it up with a kind of.

225 00:43:25.610 --> 00:43:30.020 Nick Drew, Wirral: Active hope-type exercise in community settings,

226 00:43:30.190 --> 00:43:41.549 Nick Drew, Wirral: And it's sort of going to move around slowly. I'm not sure what the name of the film is. I need to find out when they're going to actually make it more widely available, but it's… it's… it's a lovely little film.

227 00:43:42.740 --> 00:43:49.159 Nick Drew, Wirral: with my Climate Psychology Alliance hat on, we've got quite a bit of work going on in youth space there.

228 00:43:49.710 --> 00:43:53.339 Nick Drew, Wirral: The… the ICRA…

229 00:43:53.580 --> 00:44:01.400 Nick Drew, Wirral: Partnership is especially, brought on some, some people who will be working with young people.

230 00:44:01.860 --> 00:44:04.059 Nick Drew, Wirral: Thank you, Linda.

231 00:44:04.290 --> 00:44:05.660 Nick Drew, Wirral: And,

232 00:44:06.170 --> 00:44:20.910 Nick Drew, Wirral: Yeah, it feels that there's a real sense of, how we engage young people with things like a youth forum, youth support services and youth circles, those kind of constructs.

233 00:44:21.570 --> 00:44:25.840 Nick Drew, Wirral: Also work with, with parents, parent circles.

234 00:44:25.950 --> 00:44:41.889 Nick Drew, Wirral: within the Climate Majority Project, there's work looking at how to support teachers, who then, in turn, have to support young people. So there's an excellent film that was put out about a month or so ago, which, just sort of gives you the

235 00:44:42.480 --> 00:44:51.969 Nick Drew, Wirral: A kind of sense of what it's like to be a teacher, trying to teach kids who are all on their phones, and, you know, what… what is my future going to look like?

236 00:44:52.130 --> 00:45:00.580 Nick Drew, Wirral: And I'll… I'll dig that out as well after I start talking, trying to find… find a link to that, because that's… that's quite a powerful and moving film.

237 00:45:01.090 --> 00:45:05.199 Nick Drew, Wirral: So it feels that, yeah, the…

238 00:45:06.280 --> 00:45:15.539 Nick Drew, Wirral: the youth aspect is… is getting more attention at the moment than it did, I think, a few years ago. For me, it's,

239 00:45:17.030 --> 00:45:22.260 Nick Drew, Wirral: It's more a question of intergenerational discussions and how we can support

240 00:45:22.380 --> 00:45:41.769 Nick Drew, Wirral: people working through these things. So one of the things that emerged from that transition film screening and the discussion that we had… thank you, Linda. One of the things that emerged from that was this sort of desire from the young people to have some intergenerational mentoring. So people who've

241 00:45:42.210 --> 00:45:56.959 Nick Drew, Wirral: had experiences, you know, they'd really like to hear about, well, what was it like to work in a local authority, or a town council, or, you know, doing renewable energy projects, or whatever the things are that people have been doing, and how…

242 00:45:57.070 --> 00:46:11.070 Nick Drew, Wirral: do, you know, ourselves with these experiences that we've had, looking at our screens. It looks like we've all got quite a bit of experience, and quite a lot of lived experience. So, you know, how can they tap into that? How can they engage

243 00:46:11.530 --> 00:46:14.269 Nick Drew, Wirral: That… that world of experience, and that… that…

244 00:46:14.780 --> 00:46:32.719 Nick Drew, Wirral: that richness, that could help them to make sense of what they do going forward as well. So, I think that's a really important aspect, this sort of intergenerational dimension and mentoring feels like it's missing at the moment, and that they're asking for it.

245 00:46:35.210 --> 00:46:42.410 Graham Stoddart-Stones - Great Collaboration - Bembridge: Thanks, Nick. I must remember that diplomatic line, you've got plenty of lived-in experience. I love that one.

246 00:46:42.730 --> 00:46:58.549 Graham Stoddart-Stones - Great Collaboration - Bembridge: I did actually have a question, please, for Jane, which is, if you could expand a little bit on the ethical issues that you find raised with the younger generation. I find, from my limited exposure to the younger generation, they are remarkable in

247 00:46:58.550 --> 00:47:00.410 Graham Stoddart-Stones - Great Collaboration - Bembridge: How they are…

248 00:47:00.410 --> 00:47:18.659 Graham Stoddart-Stones - Great Collaboration - Bembridge: I would say much better living than we used to be. There's a lot less beer and drinking and alcohol, and a lot less everything else that goes on, and they seem to be very determined to save the planet much more than we were at our age, or their age. And so I just wonder what the ethical issues are that you're finding that they're raising.

249 00:47:21.200 --> 00:47:32.729 Jane Whild CPCC, Milton Keynes: I think the ethical issues are the extreme safeguarding that academics have to do, and of course, academics need to go to their ethics committee and get ethical approval, and I think

250 00:47:32.730 --> 00:47:41.869 Jane Whild CPCC, Milton Keynes: the bar for working with young people is higher, so sometimes I think they may avoid going to that group of people, so we're not necessarily engaging

251 00:47:41.870 --> 00:47:59.539 Jane Whild CPCC, Milton Keynes: As much. It's good to hear that there are these initiatives going on, but, you know, certainly I've spoken to a few young people, and they're really, you know, they're really worried about what's happening in the world. But what, you know, what support are they able to get? And if they're resorting to social media, it's very worrying, so…

252 00:47:59.630 --> 00:48:16.750 Jane Whild CPCC, Milton Keynes: We haven't got anything immediate or agile, you know, in our neighbourhoods to support those parents and the young people and teachers. And similarly, it will be the same with the climate, climate adaptation and resilience.

253 00:48:17.060 --> 00:48:31.460 Jane Whild CPCC, Milton Keynes: So, but I've just posted up a project that I've… that I have been engaged with recently in Milton Keynes, that the Open University are doing with some young students, where they took 20 young students, and they've been working with them to talk about environmental careers. It's the Beyond…

254 00:48:31.460 --> 00:48:39.249 Jane Whild CPCC, Milton Keynes: beyond their, you know, their schooling. So, yes, there are some really good things happening, but I'm just worried that they're not scaled enough, you know.

255 00:48:39.250 --> 00:48:41.689 Jane Whild CPCC, Milton Keynes: Or available enough,

256 00:48:42.040 --> 00:48:58.079 Jane Whild CPCC, Milton Keynes: And we very much are in danger of being in, you know, little groupthinks of certain, like you say, the generational knowledge that we have. You know, how do we get that dialogue going? You know, we have lots of things like, you know, tree planting.

257 00:48:58.240 --> 00:49:06.800 Jane Whild CPCC, Milton Keynes: Things, you know. But there's so many competing events and things going on, yet there's a lack of investment in the youth.

258 00:49:07.180 --> 00:49:13.469 Jane Whild CPCC, Milton Keynes: you know, in youth activities that are structured in our neighbourhoods. It's a sort of perfect storm, isn't it, really?

259 00:49:15.770 --> 00:49:17.830 Graham Stoddart-Stones - Great Collaboration - Bembridge: Could we move on to David, please?

260 00:49:23.610 --> 00:49:24.690 David Newman (Blackbird Leys): Right, yeah.

261 00:49:26.590 --> 00:49:32.789 David Newman (Blackbird Leys): I was thinking back a few years, When we had…

262 00:49:33.230 --> 00:49:48.979 David Newman (Blackbird Leys): School strike marches every Friday in Oxford. Mass march mobilization by Friends of the Earth. Green councillors get forcing the Council to have a climate assembly.

263 00:49:49.350 --> 00:49:53.120 David Newman (Blackbird Leys): To have not just declarations, but plans from that.

264 00:49:54.280 --> 00:50:03.239 David Newman (Blackbird Leys): And since then, It seems… The movements have split up, and people have retreated.

265 00:50:03.450 --> 00:50:07.739 David Newman (Blackbird Leys): And all the stuff about working personally and locally.

266 00:50:08.260 --> 00:50:13.279 David Newman (Blackbird Leys): Logically should be a follow-up to the climate assemblies.

267 00:50:13.460 --> 00:50:17.950 David Newman (Blackbird Leys): But it turns out, in practice, to be more of

268 00:50:18.440 --> 00:50:33.460 David Newman (Blackbird Leys): a retreat, and partially giving up, and I can't do the big things, so let's try doing some small things. Now, that's my perspective in Oxford. I don't know how true that is everywhere, but it does feel very much…

269 00:50:33.670 --> 00:50:37.650 David Newman (Blackbird Leys): Like, a movement that's broken up and a retreat.

270 00:50:43.040 --> 00:50:47.589 Graham Stoddart-Stones - Great Collaboration - Bembridge: I suspect you're directing your question, really, to Nick, are you?

271 00:50:47.890 --> 00:50:58.680 David Newman (Blackbird Leys): Well, firstly to Nick, because there's a bit about the scale he was talking about, and how you do things at a scale that will have an impact

272 00:50:59.770 --> 00:51:08.690 David Newman (Blackbird Leys): And… What that should be, and how… People can come together.

273 00:51:08.900 --> 00:51:13.570 David Newman (Blackbird Leys): To do things at the scale that has an impact.

274 00:51:15.360 --> 00:51:18.299 Nick Drew, Wirral: Mmm, thank you, David. I think it's a…

275 00:51:19.360 --> 00:51:24.590 Nick Drew, Wirral: it's a live question for me as well. I think there's…

276 00:51:27.590 --> 00:51:38.219 Nick Drew, Wirral: It felt, in 2019, when all those climate emergency declarations were coming out and exile on the streets and everything else, it did feel that we were sort of turning a bit of a corner.

277 00:51:38.550 --> 00:51:50.169 Nick Drew, Wirral: And then personally, it felt that COVID, sort of really dampened everything down in terms of that amount of energy, and then we've had, you know, obviously.

278 00:51:50.740 --> 00:51:58.239 Nick Drew, Wirral: restrictions, legal restrictions in terms of gathering and protests and so on. So, part of it is that there's… it's a…

279 00:51:58.870 --> 00:51:59.929 Nick Drew, Wirral: a less…

280 00:52:03.510 --> 00:52:06.769 Nick Drew, Wirral: I don't want to say friendly, but, you know, the environment just isn't… isn't…

281 00:52:06.880 --> 00:52:13.770 Nick Drew, Wirral: Isn't quite so compatible with people making those kind of… Large-scale demonstrations.

282 00:52:14.350 --> 00:52:23.260 Nick Drew, Wirral: I went along to the, climate Coalition's, demonstration in…

283 00:52:23.860 --> 00:52:28.550 Nick Drew, Wirral: in Parliament, the mass lobby, in the summer.

284 00:52:29.240 --> 00:52:34.310 Nick Drew, Wirral: And they explained that because of parliamentary restrictions and safeguarding of MPs.

285 00:52:34.440 --> 00:52:40.360 Nick Drew, Wirral: You know, it was much more strict than it had been when they previously had more people involved in those mass lobbies.

286 00:52:40.620 --> 00:52:46.340 Nick Drew, Wirral: So there's a sense of… the,

287 00:52:47.190 --> 00:52:51.379 Nick Drew, Wirral: The ability to gather people feels a bit hampered.

288 00:52:51.490 --> 00:52:57.320 Nick Drew, Wirral: I think, also, people are… are… Probably…

289 00:52:57.970 --> 00:53:13.979 Nick Drew, Wirral: somewhat disappointed that more hasn't happened. I think you keep hearing that people want politicians to do more, and they're not acting, and 89% of people, you know, are concerned about the climate crisis, but it doesn't translate into action, and that's where…

290 00:53:14.200 --> 00:53:22.969 Nick Drew, Wirral: the Climate Majority Project has been trying to mobilize that, sort of, that set of people that are concerned, but perhaps aren't taking action.

291 00:53:23.830 --> 00:53:24.700 Nick Drew, Wirral: I think…

292 00:53:24.900 --> 00:53:35.940 Nick Drew, Wirral: for me, one of the things, and I've come off a call from the National Emergency Briefing people earlier today, and I think one of the things there that feels quite…

293 00:53:36.910 --> 00:53:47.679 Nick Drew, Wirral: important is to… to use this moment, and for those who aren't aware, you know, this was an event that was held in November in, in…

294 00:53:48.010 --> 00:54:02.460 Nick Drew, Wirral: in central London, with the aim of getting as many MPs as possible to hear from subject matter experts on, you know, the state of where we are, the climate, and more widely, biodiversity, food security.

295 00:54:03.100 --> 00:54:05.149 Nick Drew, Wirral: Energy, and so on.

296 00:54:05.740 --> 00:54:07.260 Nick Drew, Wirral: And…

297 00:54:07.880 --> 00:54:20.019 Nick Drew, Wirral: with the next phase of that, and I'm sure Linda can expand on this, to roll this out as a sort of set of community screenings across the UK, again, to try and get

298 00:54:21.580 --> 00:54:37.300 Nick Drew, Wirral: people to… to call for this action to happen through getting their MPs involved, to wanting to have a televised national screening of this, so that it's sort of much more on everybody's agenda again, as it was back in 2019.

299 00:54:38.000 --> 00:54:41.260 Nick Drew, Wirral: So, yeah, it feels that there's a…

300 00:54:42.170 --> 00:54:59.589 Nick Drew, Wirral: a sort of exhaustion that can set in if you've been doing this for a long time as well. So there's also this sort of sense of, well, somebody else is picking up the bat on and trying a different approach to try and get this to really land. So I'm very grateful to the National Emergency Briefing folk, but there's…

301 00:54:59.760 --> 00:55:05.130 Nick Drew, Wirral: Other things, like the Safer Campaign, which is also trying to

302 00:55:05.730 --> 00:55:07.660 Nick Drew, Wirral: And to look at how do we…

303 00:55:07.810 --> 00:55:16.529 Nick Drew, Wirral: Both lobby nationally, but also engage people locally in terms of making their communities more resilient to what's coming.

304 00:55:19.450 --> 00:55:24.300 David Newman (Blackbird Leys): Yes, the most… the biggest event I was at recently

305 00:55:24.410 --> 00:55:33.960 David Newman (Blackbird Leys): was in Lehman's home in Gorton and Denton by-election. So there, the approach is, don't try and get your MP involved, change your MP.

306 00:55:41.270 --> 00:55:43.850 Graham Stoddart-Stones - Great Collaboration - Bembridge: Ken, can we go with you, please?

307 00:55:43.850 --> 00:55:55.699 Ken Huggins North Dorset: I was gonna say it worked in Gorton and Denton, didn't it, David? I agree with you that it does feel like we've retreated a bit, in view of the many years that so many people have put into it, and the

308 00:55:55.840 --> 00:56:04.700 Ken Huggins North Dorset: relatively little progress we seem to have made. It's very disheartening. However, I feel there is another corner being turned. Nick has just commented on it, the, the national emergency briefing.

309 00:56:05.650 --> 00:56:14.410 Ken Huggins North Dorset: Which I think only about a third of MPs turned up for it. They're not sure what the number was. But either way, they're rolling out a film of it now to try and get more people

310 00:56:14.620 --> 00:56:22.069 Ken Huggins North Dorset: To actually see it, because it's a big… it's a massive wake-up call. I don't know if anybody's seen it, but it's a huge slap in the face. It says, come on, wake up.

311 00:56:22.320 --> 00:56:31.360 Ken Huggins North Dorset: we can't wait any longer to deal with this. So, Parish Councillor, I've got my parish council to agree to hold a showing in, in our village hall.

312 00:56:31.360 --> 00:56:45.010 Ken Huggins North Dorset: And I'll be engaging with local parish councils and see if some of them will either join us or do their own thing, so… and I'm a team of people working in North Dorset, South Dorset, trying to get showings of this going. I was in a meeting yesterday with Jamie from Zero Hour Graham.

313 00:56:45.940 --> 00:56:57.609 Ken Huggins North Dorset: And, he… I asked him, would you be prepared to talk to the Great Collaboration Group? And he said, absolutely. So if you want to… if you want to make a note of his, email.

314 00:56:57.900 --> 00:56:58.420 Graham Stoddart-Stones - Great Collaboration - Bembridge: Yep.

315 00:56:58.420 --> 00:57:00.320 Ken Huggins North Dorset: It's very simple, it's campaign.

316 00:57:02.620 --> 00:57:03.180 Graham Stoddart-Stones - Great Collaboration - Bembridge: Yep.

317 00:57:03.310 --> 00:57:05.649 Ken Huggins North Dorset: At Zero Hour, all one word.

318 00:57:06.660 --> 00:57:07.120 Graham Stoddart-Stones - Great Collaboration - Bembridge: Yep.

319 00:57:07.120 --> 00:57:08.519 Ken Huggins North Dorset: dot co.uk.

320 00:57:08.910 --> 00:57:09.930 Graham Stoddart-Stones - Great Collaboration - Bembridge: Thank you so much.

321 00:57:09.930 --> 00:57:13.559 Ken Huggins North Dorset: His name is Jamie, and he'd be perfectly happy to come along and have a chat.

322 00:57:14.900 --> 00:57:15.530 Graham Stoddart-Stones - Great Collaboration - Bembridge: Right.

323 00:57:15.530 --> 00:57:16.170 Ken Huggins North Dorset: Okay.

324 00:57:16.600 --> 00:57:18.600 Graham Stoddart-Stones - Great Collaboration - Bembridge: Bobby's free next Wednesday.

325 00:57:20.480 --> 00:57:22.560 Ken Huggins North Dorset: But you can try, you can only ask, aren't you?

326 00:57:22.560 --> 00:57:25.100 Graham Stoddart-Stones - Great Collaboration - Bembridge: Absolutely. Sue, how are you doing today?

327 00:57:25.580 --> 00:57:39.820 Sue Burton Battle Town Council: Oh, well, okay. Lots of different thoughts hearing today, the comments. First of all, I wanted to point out there's a podcast called Outrage and Optimism.

328 00:57:40.080 --> 00:57:52.490 Sue Burton Battle Town Council: Climate Podcast, and the episode from 6 days away a day, 2 days ago, was Catastrophe Apathy, Why the Understanding the Climate Crisis Isn't Enough.

329 00:57:52.940 --> 00:58:05.650 Sue Burton Battle Town Council: And the… a lot of the debate was about carbon… carbon footprints, and individual action, and national action, and lack of, etc. So,

330 00:58:07.260 --> 00:58:18.070 Sue Burton Battle Town Council: I want to highlight that it's hard to keep up with everything, and really good you mentioned the national emergency briefing and the film showing.

331 00:58:18.120 --> 00:58:36.150 Sue Burton Battle Town Council: And so, you come back to each of us doing what we can, some resistant for longer periods than others. I've kept going on, and so as a town council, you can go back to the local activity and where you can see

332 00:58:36.150 --> 00:58:47.749 Sue Burton Battle Town Council: We can get people together, working together, etc, as much as you can, but it feels very uphill, you know, of, you know, you…

333 00:58:48.060 --> 00:59:04.989 Sue Burton Battle Town Council: people not wanting to be inconvenienced at all about climate and what it means to them and what they could do. And it's… we're really stuck between lack of action nationally, like, I don't know.

334 00:59:04.990 --> 00:59:23.849 Sue Burton Battle Town Council: good old banning flights that, you can do the train journey in 3 hours or less, you know, or whatever. You know, and the government are not doing any of those, it feels like they're doing any of those things that really help make people make good choices.

335 00:59:23.850 --> 00:59:33.459 Sue Burton Battle Town Council: So we… I feel we are really stuck. This web… this, session has helped me to think more clearly about adaptation.

336 00:59:33.460 --> 00:59:47.390 Sue Burton Battle Town Council: and within my community, are we doing enough? What else could we do? And so I need to probably look back and see if we had a session on adaptation in the great collaboration that I could have a watch of, because I don't feel

337 00:59:47.390 --> 01:00:00.350 Sue Burton Battle Town Council: that I'm up to speed with what we could do in our community, you know. So, a bit of garbled thoughts, but I can't believe that I'm the only one who thinks some of those things.

338 01:00:01.840 --> 01:00:02.400 Sue Burton Battle Town Council: Yeah.

339 01:00:02.400 --> 01:00:18.269 Graham Stoddart-Stones - Great Collaboration - Bembridge: Okay, Sue, thank you. I've just put a link to the Optimism and Outrage, podcast so that you can go and look up whichever one you want to look at, but I think the one you were mentioning earlier was, Sue, was on the, back in February.

340 01:00:18.270 --> 01:00:20.740 Sue Burton Battle Town Council: Oh, yeah, just in March.

341 01:00:20.740 --> 01:00:23.989 Graham Stoddart-Stones - Great Collaboration - Bembridge: just… that's there for people to look at. I had…

342 01:00:23.990 --> 01:00:48.970 Graham Stoddart-Stones - Great Collaboration - Bembridge: an announcement and a question to ask. So the announcement is that the National Emergency Briefing have got a link out that lets you look at the videos from the session itself, and their selected parts of their sessions. And then there's a form that they invite you to fill in so that you can actually show the movie which they're creating, which is coming out on the 7th of April.

343 01:00:48.970 --> 01:00:49.680 Graham Stoddart-Stones - Great Collaboration - Bembridge: April.

344 01:00:49.680 --> 01:00:52.370 Graham Stoddart-Stones - Great Collaboration - Bembridge: to your local commune.

345 01:00:52.370 --> 01:01:16.769 Graham Stoddart-Stones - Great Collaboration - Bembridge: So I'm just writing the page in the knowledge base at the moment, which will be up for everyone to see in an hour or three. And then you can sort of use that to get hold of the link that will make sure that you get a copy of the video, which you can show in your village hall. And they're also looking for people to spread the word across a network, so I'll be doing it on behalf of the great collaboration, but if you know

346 01:01:16.840 --> 01:01:26.090 Graham Stoddart-Stones - Great Collaboration - Bembridge: others near you, if you're linked to other parishes or whatever, then by all means, get them to get the video as well, because I agree, it's a fantastic document.

347 01:01:26.320 --> 01:01:31.489 Graham Stoddart-Stones - Great Collaboration - Bembridge: And the… my question was really for Nick, which was.

348 01:01:34.990 --> 01:01:59.929 Graham Stoddart-Stones - Great Collaboration - Bembridge: we seem to get these things that create passion over the years. So if you go back a bit, there was, an inconvenient truth, which people really got hold of and said, okay, we need to do something about this. And then, as everyone is saying, it seems that things die, and at the moment, you've got, Channel 4's Dirty Business, which is on the water companies and how revolting

349 01:01:59.930 --> 01:02:02.959 Graham Stoddart-Stones - Great Collaboration - Bembridge: they've been. And then you've got the NEB,

350 01:02:03.000 --> 01:02:06.969 Graham Stoddart-Stones - Great Collaboration - Bembridge: And I just wonder, do you feel that there's any…

351 01:02:07.150 --> 01:02:27.369 Graham Stoddart-Stones - Great Collaboration - Bembridge: permanency in these outrages that get people moving, because, you know, we're talking about Friends of the Earth dying down, and the Green Movement dying down, but then they'll all get re-energized by some later scandal. That appears to be the human condition. We can't retain the information without being scandalized every now and again. Are you finding that?

352 01:02:28.950 --> 01:02:48.950 Nick Drew, Wirral: And briefly, yes, Graham, I think that does feel like, as you say, it's part of the human condition, I think, that we, you know, we sort of go along quite happily, and then something will jolt us into a different sort of state of awareness or consciousness, and then we'll become very passionate about it for a certain length of time, and then discover that, actually.

353 01:02:49.020 --> 01:02:50.530 Nick Drew, Wirral: We don't…

354 01:02:50.680 --> 01:02:58.949 Nick Drew, Wirral: have any quick fixes to some of these problems, and so it's who's got the staying power to stay on there in the long term. And I…

355 01:02:59.490 --> 01:03:03.099 Nick Drew, Wirral: I think what's… what's starting to happen…

356 01:03:03.850 --> 01:03:21.399 Nick Drew, Wirral: is that it's becoming very political now, because I think it's… it's gone past the point where you can sort of say, oh, this is… this is just a natural thing, or this is going to happen, you know, centuries to come, or whatever, because we had…

357 01:03:21.660 --> 01:03:39.269 Nick Drew, Wirral: great deal of drought last year. You know, we're having an increase in the number of storms. We're seeing the impacts of climate change starting to bite, and this is just with us being at, sort of, around 1.5 degrees. We also know that we're storing up all these issues for the future, so

358 01:03:39.270 --> 01:03:42.810 Nick Drew, Wirral: I think as the climate impacts start to hit.

359 01:03:42.810 --> 01:03:48.020 Nick Drew, Wirral: in the UK more, and people start to understand

360 01:03:48.420 --> 01:03:53.990 Nick Drew, Wirral: this… this is a problem that's going to affect our lives, and I… I remember…

361 01:03:55.390 --> 01:04:11.639 Nick Drew, Wirral: being at a talk in Chester and saying, look, I used to think this was something for, sort of, grandchildren-type generations. I think, no, it's actually going to… it's going to be, you know, in my lifetime, it's going to be the, effectively, the thing that will finish me off.

362 01:04:11.950 --> 01:04:12.870 Nick Drew, Wirral: And…

363 01:04:13.080 --> 01:04:28.060 Nick Drew, Wirral: I think what we've seen in the last week or so, it was actually on the ITV News, the, Joint Intelligence Committee report around, which I think was authored by DEFRA, but there was some,

364 01:04:28.530 --> 01:04:45.339 Nick Drew, Wirral: of our input from intelligence agencies as well, around the ecosystem collapse possibilities within the next, sort of, 5 to 10 year time frame, and what some of the scenarios might be in that space. And I think the more that

365 01:04:45.400 --> 01:04:57.360 Nick Drew, Wirral: You sort of uncover what are some of the risks and what's being said out there, the more worried you can get as an individual, and the more frustrating it can feel that there isn't a bigger conversation going on about this.

366 01:04:57.470 --> 01:05:02.600 Nick Drew, Wirral: So there's a… there's a sense of, at some point, I think that the…

367 01:05:02.900 --> 01:05:14.729 Nick Drew, Wirral: the dam will break, and there will be a kind of a wider societal conversation, and I'm just hopeful that the NEB will start to do that, because it feels that…

368 01:05:14.850 --> 01:05:22.010 Nick Drew, Wirral: 5 or 10 years ago, we didn't have quite the same understanding of how dire the situation was, and how…

369 01:05:22.260 --> 01:05:27.259 Nick Drew, Wirral: And how close, in sort of terms of impacts these things are to us.

370 01:05:28.670 --> 01:05:31.559 Graham Stoddart-Stones - Great Collaboration - Bembridge: Right. Gotta sellberg to the full.

371 01:05:31.770 --> 01:05:32.770 Graham Stoddart-Stones - Great Collaboration - Bembridge: Linda?

372 01:05:35.600 --> 01:05:47.490 Linda Aspey: Hi, this has been such a rich conversation. A couple of things have come to mind, and a very direct question for Nick, but first, a sort of couple of reflections. The Climate Psychology Alliance.

373 01:05:47.880 --> 01:05:54.720 Linda Aspey: Spends its time and energy thinking about this very question, about the systems that entangle us and entrap us.

374 01:05:54.720 --> 01:06:12.019 Linda Aspey: And if you mention climate psychology to a sort of layperson, that's, they're gonna say, what do you mean, you know, getting people to put their waste in the right color bins, and how to get the right height, and the happy faces. But climate psychology is much more around understanding the responses that we have.

375 01:06:12.020 --> 01:06:15.240 Linda Aspey: And the systems we've created that stop us engaging.

376 01:06:15.270 --> 01:06:26.739 Linda Aspey: So I would say there's a lot that can be learnt about how we do engage people by just looking at the Climate Psychology Alliance's webpage. We've got a free guide called the Climate Psychology Alliance Handbook.

377 01:06:26.860 --> 01:06:44.429 Linda Aspey: I've done a few talks for here, for anybody that's new here, they'll be in… under the climate psychology thing. And I did a talk just a couple of weeks ago for the Climate Emergency Centres Network, which was nearly an hour on climate psychology, which you just go into CEC… you probably know the CEC.

378 01:06:44.930 --> 01:06:56.399 Linda Aspey: And look that one up. The other thing to say, just as, as something that's in the working… I'm working with the NEB core team on helping them to think about how they land the film.

379 01:06:56.540 --> 01:07:03.230 Linda Aspey: Because we know from so many years of mistakes that just giving people the facts does not move.

380 01:07:03.690 --> 01:07:20.079 Linda Aspey: And what it does is either shut people down, or put… retrench them further into denial, or pushing away, and using all sorts of psychological defense processes. So if anyone's thinking about hosting a screening, I would encourage you, and I'm just developing a framework right now, it's going to go live

381 01:07:20.240 --> 01:07:30.700 Linda Aspey: from the NEB team in a couple of… a few days, probably, and with Mike Berners-Lee, we're looking at what are the conditions that make it possible for people to absorb and act on information.

382 01:07:31.000 --> 01:07:36.079 Linda Aspey: And what we've been focusing on for years is what do we need to tell people to get them to act?

383 01:07:36.710 --> 01:07:42.210 Linda Aspey: But if we switched it to what are the conditions that we need to create care for people.

384 01:07:42.740 --> 01:07:51.140 Linda Aspey: So that they know that this is somewhere they can come with their worries, and that they can share their fears, and this is a community that cares.

385 01:07:51.180 --> 01:08:06.559 Linda Aspey: And isn't frightened of showing it, and I don't mean to say that everyone's weeping, but if we don't… if we ignore the psychological and emotional, continue to do that, we'll have the same impact. It'll just go out there, and we'll just give people a bunch of stuff, and they'll go, oh yeah, that's, you know.

386 01:08:07.020 --> 01:08:15.960 Linda Aspey: So we've got to do it differently. So I would encourage you to look at that, and the framework I'm developing is a seven elements framework, with guidelines and cheat sheets and stuff like that.

387 01:08:16.620 --> 01:08:21.049 Linda Aspey: And then finally, I have a… oh, it was just to say that tomorrow…

388 01:08:21.500 --> 01:08:38.050 Linda Aspey: Greener Henley is… which is, funnily enough, by coincidence, the chaps that have developed the National Emergency Briefing are Nick and Simon Aldrich. Their sister is Kate, who runs Greener Henley, and she's doing a… she's doing a meeting tomorrow, which I'm facilitating.

389 01:08:38.370 --> 01:08:41.690 Linda Aspey: For people that want to host an emergency briefing.

390 01:08:41.790 --> 01:08:45.799 Linda Aspey: But they want it to be an invite-only event, as opposed to a public event.

391 01:08:46.430 --> 01:08:57.810 Linda Aspey: So if you, for example, in Greena Henley, they've decided they're just going to have 60 business leaders, some faith leaders, some political people, rather than invite the general public.

392 01:08:58.060 --> 01:09:13.850 Linda Aspey: And so, they're hosting a session tomorrow, and Ben Long from National Emergency Briefing is coming along to open it. Kate will then talk through her model and their ideas, and it's freely available, it's free to share, so we've got about 30 people signed up, so…

393 01:09:13.859 --> 01:09:20.059 Linda Aspey: There's that one. And then my question for Nick, and it's a… but you probably won't be able to answer it in 3 minutes.

394 01:09:21.390 --> 01:09:23.960 Linda Aspey: But, is…

395 01:09:24.120 --> 01:09:35.110 Linda Aspey: one of the things that often holds people back, funnily enough, is information, although we know psychology is behind it all. You know, we know that psychology is the resistance, it's not the information.

396 01:09:35.550 --> 01:09:43.779 Linda Aspey: However, part of it is also for people not making sense of it, making meaning of this at local level. My model does include a meaning-making element.

397 01:09:44.060 --> 01:09:52.069 Linda Aspey: But, for example, in my village, people don't see flooding here, because we happen to live in a place that doesn't get flooded, for example.

398 01:09:52.310 --> 01:10:10.159 Linda Aspey: And they look at other villages and go, well, it's their problem, so even if at local level. So, how have you… what resources have you found that help people to actually do a risk assessment of where they live? Because that seems to be really thin on the ground, because I think if people can identify the local risks.

399 01:10:10.210 --> 01:10:14.089 Linda Aspey: They can make more sense of it and say, okay, we need to adapt to this or that.

400 01:10:14.530 --> 01:10:16.389 Linda Aspey: What are your thoughts on that, Nick?

401 01:10:17.500 --> 01:10:21.020 Nick Drew, Wirral: That's a great question, Linda, and it was what I was going to…

402 01:10:21.270 --> 01:10:23.370 Nick Drew, Wirral: briefly try and respond, I think.

403 01:10:23.660 --> 01:10:32.469 Nick Drew, Wirral: I think it was Sue who was asking about adaptation, too, because for me, the adaptation is a very localized thing, so it's partly about

404 01:10:32.760 --> 01:10:43.949 Nick Drew, Wirral: you know, do you live near a river, or do you live near a potential heathland that might have a wildfire, or something like that? So there's aspects that are to do with the local geography.

405 01:10:44.110 --> 01:10:51.000 Nick Drew, Wirral: But there's also aspects that are to do with the vulnerabilities in the population, because it's normally those people who don't have

406 01:10:51.190 --> 01:10:57.210 Nick Drew, Wirral: The resources, either because they haven't got the finances, or because, you know, they just don't have

407 01:10:57.360 --> 01:10:59.339 Nick Drew, Wirral: The capacity to,

408 01:11:00.310 --> 01:11:13.499 Nick Drew, Wirral: to respond, basically. So either very young or very elderly people will be impacted much more by climate change than people, you know, who sort of,

409 01:11:13.770 --> 01:11:15.659 Nick Drew, Wirral: You know, in, in, in the, the…

410 01:11:16.210 --> 01:11:21.040 Nick Drew, Wirral: middle years. There's going to be…

411 01:11:21.700 --> 01:11:26.909 Nick Drew, Wirral: A set of, different toolkits and resources out there that you could look at.

412 01:11:26.910 --> 01:11:27.640 Linda Aspey: Hmm.

413 01:11:27.640 --> 01:11:30.329 Nick Drew, Wirral: one of the ones that I've,

414 01:11:30.880 --> 01:11:48.220 Nick Drew, Wirral: involved with was, something called the Local Climate Adaptation Toolkit, or LCAT, which Peter Lafort out of Exeter University, who's got a community of practice, which, in fact, was the meeting I was at before, where Ben Long came along, and so there's a sort of… there's sort of a bit of an alignment going on here, but… but the…

415 01:11:48.460 --> 01:11:49.570 Nick Drew, Wirral: there is…

416 01:11:49.870 --> 01:12:08.789 Nick Drew, Wirral: a set of toolkits out there, and often quite on coming from a sort of NHS perspective, because I think they end up having to actually sort of deal with the human impacts of a lot of this. So, I think there was one that was from the West Midlands, but I think other NHS trusts have also had to sort of think about

417 01:12:08.910 --> 01:12:23.080 Nick Drew, Wirral: adaptation and response. Public health parts of local government are also thinking about it. You've obviously got the Environment Agency and quite a lot of work they've been doing there about, about, especially around flooding.

418 01:12:23.350 --> 01:12:25.630 Nick Drew, Wirral: Coastal erosion as well, but…

419 01:12:25.920 --> 01:12:39.730 Nick Drew, Wirral: Yeah, part of this is… is knowing where to start, and that's partly about knowing your community, both, sort of, the geography of the community and the, sort of, the human geography in terms of population and… and risks.

420 01:12:39.830 --> 01:12:47.220 Nick Drew, Wirral: But the local resilience Forum should have a local risk that's,

421 01:12:47.900 --> 01:13:01.489 Nick Drew, Wirral: cascaded down from the national risk assessment. At the moment, that doesn't feel very, sort of, climate-ish. It's sort of… it's kind of, you know, thinking about terrorist incidents or other things, you know, rather than

422 01:13:01.840 --> 01:13:02.930 Nick Drew, Wirral: And…

423 01:13:03.250 --> 01:13:10.860 Nick Drew, Wirral: the details that you'd want at a very local community level. But yeah, there's… there are resources out there, and, I think

424 01:13:11.000 --> 01:13:22.359 Nick Drew, Wirral: probably to… whether, Graham, in your sort of resource hub knowledge thing is a good place to start to collect and share some of those, but I think that that's a task that…

425 01:13:22.650 --> 01:13:28.080 Nick Drew, Wirral: We probably all need to, sort of, get aware of what we can use in that space.

426 01:13:28.260 --> 01:13:30.160 Graham Stoddart-Stones - Great Collaboration - Bembridge: Yeah, but it does immediately present…

427 01:13:31.240 --> 01:13:35.210 Graham Stoddart-Stones - Great Collaboration - Bembridge: It presents a new page that we can put into the knowledge base, so yes, thank you.

428 01:13:36.840 --> 01:13:40.240 Graham Stoddart-Stones - Great Collaboration - Bembridge: Does anyone else wish to re-raise any points, please?

429 01:13:41.710 --> 01:13:48.139 Graham Stoddart-Stones - Great Collaboration - Bembridge: I am, in great delight, able to tell you what is coming up in two weeks' time, so…

430 01:13:48.360 --> 01:14:01.820 Graham Stoddart-Stones - Great Collaboration - Bembridge: All praise to Linda, who's going to give us another one of her insights into how best to absorb all this information that we're getting. So, look forward very much, Linda, to getting people to come and see you on the 18th of March.

431 01:14:02.320 --> 01:14:07.589 Graham Stoddart-Stones - Great Collaboration - Bembridge: Which looks like it's a shocking news to you.

432 01:14:08.670 --> 01:14:13.509 Graham Stoddart-Stones - Great Collaboration - Bembridge: Well, take that one offline.

433 01:14:13.510 --> 01:14:17.139 Linda Aspey: That's fine, no, I can do that, I've got… that's no problem.

434 01:14:17.820 --> 01:14:19.859 Graham Stoddart-Stones - Great Collaboration - Bembridge: Do you want to know what the title is?

435 01:14:19.860 --> 01:14:20.490 Linda Aspey: Please.

436 01:14:20.640 --> 01:14:28.140 Graham Stoddart-Stones - Great Collaboration - Bembridge: Yep, you're going to be talking, you'll be delighted to know, on the subject of… Taking time to think.

437 01:14:28.690 --> 01:14:35.270 Linda Aspey: Oh, yes, yes, yes. I think an environment, lovely. Yeah. That was referred to just the other day, actually, by,

438 01:14:35.390 --> 01:14:50.959 Linda Aspey: Larger Us, which is an incredible organization that does climate conversations training, and they said that they'd use the time to think approach, which is good, considering that's what I've spent 20 years working on. Okay.

439 01:14:51.110 --> 01:14:52.290 Linda Aspey: Good. Right.

440 01:14:52.290 --> 01:14:58.969 Graham Stoddart-Stones - Great Collaboration - Bembridge: Well, thank you all, everyone, for coming. Thank you, Nick, in particular, for a very thought-provoking session.

441 01:14:59.170 --> 01:15:04.840 Graham Stoddart-Stones - Great Collaboration - Bembridge: I'm sure you've raised more questions than you answered, which is usually the way, so… Exactly.

442 01:15:05.020 --> 01:15:10.240 Graham Stoddart-Stones - Great Collaboration - Bembridge: Thank you all, have a great Wednesday afternoon, and we'll see you later. Take care.

443 01:15:10.610 --> 01:15:12.950 Sue Burton Battle Town Council: Thank you. Bye. Bye.

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Musings on Collaboration - markdown of presentation:

Great Collaboration

4 March 2026 Nick Drew CPA Board member

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Q: What is my work to do, at this time?

![Person walking down a road through mountains] (Slide image – page 3)

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Climate Change → Climate Urgency → Climate Crisis → Climate Collapse

(Slide with book covers and timeline arrow)

Books shown:

• You Can Save the Planet – A Day in the Life of Your Carbon Footprint

• Zero Carbon Britain – Rethinking the Future

• From What Is to What If – Rob Hopkins

• This Civilisation is Finished

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The Four Columns (Source: HEART Community Group)

Source: https://heartcommunitygroup.org/wp-content/uploads/2022/07/4-Columns-April-2022-v6.pdf

Column 1 — Mainstream

Business as usual. Yes, it’s a problem – but “in the future” and “elsewhere”.

Can kicking.

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Column 2 — Business as Usual but Greener

Everybody must do their bit.

• Renewables

• Fly less

• Eat less meat

Geo-engineering & Carbon Capture.

Work towards 2050 Paris Agreement targets.

Perceived as a crisis but not an existential threat.

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Column 3 — Emergency

Non-violent direct action required as this is an existential threat.

Examples:

• Extinction Rebellion

• School Strikers

• Earth Movement

Mitigation and adaptation.

If we wait for governments it will be too late.

Transformative adaptation.

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Column 4 — Collapse Aware

Too late for mitigation-only due to:

• Locked-in warming

• Feedback loops

Prepare now for community resilience as well as mitigation to:

• Extend the glide

• Soften the landing

Deep Adaptation.

Goals:

• Minimise suffering

• Psycho-spiritual approaches

We need to build community resilience.

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Working at Different Scales — Where to Focus Effort?

UK → North West Region → Liverpool City Region → Wirral → Heswall

Roles:

• Transition NorthWest – Network Weaver

• Co-ordinator

• Founder

• Wirral Climate Partnership – Chair of Adaptation Group

• 2021–22 Champion

• Board Member

• SAFER advisor

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How We Make Decisions Together

“Who decides who decides?”

“We’re going to need a bigger room!”

(Image of large meeting / assembly room)

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Sociocracy

A peer governance system based on consent

Key concepts:

Circles

Trusted teams of peers.

Groups of 4–8 people working together with a defined purpose and authority in their domain.

Linking

Connectors between circles help align circles and balance information flow.

Decisions

Decisions made by consent.

If a member objects, the proposal must be improved.

Feedback

Build feedback and increase information flow to enable continuous improvement.

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Working Relationships

NVC (Non-Violent Communication)

Core cycle:

LISTEN → Observations → Feelings → Needs → Requests

SPEAK

Example framework:

“When ____ (describe action), I feel ____ (share feeling) because I have a need for ____ (state need). Would you consider ____?”

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Joanna Macy Quote

“This is a dark time, filled with suffering and uncertainty. Like living cells in a larger body, it is natural that we feel the trauma of our world. So don’t be afraid of the anguish you feel, or the anger or fear, because these responses arise from the depth of your caring and the truth of your interconnectedness with all beings.”

— Joanna Macy

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Overview of The Work That Reconnects / Active Hope

The Work That Reconnects is designed for those who wish to engage in healing the world and themselves.

It draws on teachings including:

• Systems Thinking

• Deep Ecology

• Spiritual traditions

Purpose:

Transform feelings of despair into empowered action.

The process is a spiral journey consisting of four stages:

1. Coming from Gratitude

2. Honouring Our Pain for the World

3. Seeing with New / Ancient Eyes

4. Going Forth

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Climate Action Fund — Our Shared Future

The Climate Action Fund supports communities tackling climate change and becoming environmentally sustainable.

Goals:

• Involve more people in climate action

• Inspire bold and exciting change

Funding conditions:

Projects must be formal partnerships with other organisations.

Examples of suitable projects:

• Linking climate action to everyday life in communities

• Influencing communities at regional or national level

Eligibility:

You do not need to be a climate-focused organisation.

Priority areas include communities experiencing:

• Poverty

• Discrimination

• Disadvantage

Funding details:

• Area: UK-wide

• Minimum grant: £500,000

• Typical funding: £1m – £1.5m over 3–5 years

• Total fund: £30m

• Around 25 projects expected

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Partners / Organisations

• National Lottery Community Fund

• The Mindfulness Initiative

• Climate Psychology Alliance

• Climate Majority Project

• ICRA

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Returning to the Scale Question

Current focus:

Moving to the local level

Priorities:

• Adaptation

• Resilience building

Roles:

• Transition NorthWest – Network Weaver

• Co-ordinator

• Founder

• Wirral Climate Partnership – Chair of Adaptation Group

• 2021–22 Champion

• Board Member

• SAFER advisor

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Questions?

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