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18 | NOVEMBER 2020 | UTILITY WEEK Policy & Regulation Analysis Public backing for climate fight The Climate Assembly's report surprised many by showing that the public back tougher climate change action than many politicians assume they do. David Blackman reports. T hree years ago, a group of randomly selected voters came together to thrash out solutions to one of the thorniest policy issues that modern government face – how to fix social care. Selected to reflect a cross-section of wider society and then equipped with infor- mation so they could make informed deci- sions about the issue, the so-called Citizens Assembly produced a weighty report, the conclusions of which have largely gathered dust in the meantime. Those who took part earlier this year in the Climate Assembly UK, which like the social care exercise was convened by the UK parliament's select committees, will be hoping that their deliberations will bear more fruit. Audrey Gallacher, Energy UK's dep- uty chief executive, says she was "really pleased" with the Climate Assembly report when it appeared last month. "There was a lot of support for how thor- ough it was and the balanced nature of the recommendations," says Jim Watson, profes- sor of energy policy at the UCL Institute of Sustainable Resources, who was one of the assembly's key advisers. The generally warm welcome for the report is perhaps surprising, given the chal- lenging nature of the recommendations it delivered. An overwhelming majority (86 per cent) of assembly members backed a ban on sales of new gas boilers from as soon as 2030. They also recommended banning the sale of new petrol, diesel and hybrid cars by around the same date, while heavily backing offshore and onshore wind and solar technologies for generating electricity. Alan Whitehead, shadow energy minister, says: "One might have expected there would have been quite a big pushback against some of the more far-reaching conclusions." But he is heartened by the assembly's willingness to contemplate radical solutions. "They appeared to understand both the urgency and the extent of the net zero chal- lenge and responded accordingly in a well- considered and informed manner, which sets at the very least an irrefutable, well worked out external reference for many of the policy discussions we are going to have in the very near future. "It's not a political party doing this, it's a representative group of the population." The relatively radical nature of the rec- ommendations may point to a broader shi in public attitudes towards climate change, says Gallacher: "Perhaps because people are now seeing the effects of climate change, you don't have degree of scepticism you had a few years ago." And the report's conclusion should embolden politicians to go further and faster than they might have otherwise envisaged as possible, says Whitehead: "The public is ahead of politicians: the caution of some pol- iticians on the grounds that it won't go down well with people is unfounded in this. " "Hopefully that can give the government some reassurance to make the bold deci- sions that will be needed," says Gallacher. "The decisions government is making in the spending review should certainly take into account the things citizens are telling us." Watson agrees. "The hope among many assembly members is that it gives govern- ment confidence to do more." "We are all used to dealing with data and analysis about technology and costs but this is equally important data about public preferences and the conditions under which they will support certain technologies. This should give decision-makers more confi- dence to act perhaps more boldly than they have done already." The voice of the common man The assembly's conclusion could also make it harder for media outlets like the Daily Telegraph to claim they are speaking up for hard-up, ordinary voters, when they argue against potentially costly measures to tackle the issue. "The Climate Assembly was very keen to emphasise points about fairness but never said this meant it couldn't be done. They were more about suggesting ways around it [unfairness]," says Doug Parr, head of policy at Greenpeace UK. However, the assembly's conclusions must also be seen in the context of opinion polling, published earlier this month by the Conservative think-tank Bright Blue, which