The Local Climate Engagement Programme (LCE) aims to help ensure that the UK can reach its net zero target. It provides local authorities and their partners in England with support to undertake or commission high quality, inclusive public engagement in climate decision-making to help shape their strategies, policies, services, initiatives or decisions. On the 12th February 2024 Involve published the part 1 external evaluation report.

Shared Future CIC has supported this work in Lancaster and Derbyshire. Within the evaluation covering the period of July 2022 to September 2023 the Chief Executive at Lancaster City Council (LCC) explained how LCE had helped their Council understand the need for different messaging to engage different groups in climate discussions, and made them think differently about what constitutes real engagement:

“Councils aren’t always that good at consultation, but we have to consult on a lot of things. So we use the traditional website surveys and public hall meetings… The work that we’re undertaking at the moment [with LCE] has really shifted our view on what consultation and engagement could look like.”