Climate change and energy workshops

The Energy Transformed Flagship’s social research team has travelled the breadth of Australia to run a series of Climate Change and Energy Workshops and gain insight into public knowledge of and perceptions about climate change and low emission technologies.

Workshops were held in the New South Wales Hunter Valley and in Perth, Western Australia.

This research began last year when the Flagship conducted a series of workshops with Hunter Valley communities to gauge their understanding of, and attitudes towards, climate change and power generation.

CSIRO researcher, Peta Ashworth, said the research underlined the challenges of acting to reduce carbon emissions in Australia.

“Our research found participants understood the urgency of addressing climate change, they were prepared to look at alternatives and they were prepared to make changes such as putting in less energy intensive light bulbs,” Ms Ashworth said.

“Initially, we found there was less support for paying more for power to reduce greenhouse gas emissions, whether through paying for renewable energy, or because of an emissions trading scheme.

“We found however that as participants received more education about the effects of climate change and the issues involved, they were more supportive of taking such direct, personal action.

“Research to date shows residents are supportive of efforts to combat climate change and are prepared to take action and make personal sacrifices to do it.

“However, to do this they want to be properly informed and understand how their actions will contribute to this national, indeed global effort.”

More workshops are planned for 2009 and will inform the direction of the Flagship’s engagement with key stakeholders regarding our research and technology development.

“This social research will help us understand how a person’s knowledge and actions develop and change as they receive more information and discuss and debate the important issue of climate change,” Ms Ashworth said.