As part of our ambition to drive transformation the Improvement Service has been working with Creative Carbon Scotland to understand how local authorities and the arts and cultural sector can work together to tackle climate change. In this blog Lewis Coenen-Rowe at CCS and Judi Kilgallon at the IS reflect on the asks and aims of local authorities, the offer of local and national arts and cultural organisations and how these can be brought together. This is the start of the conversation but we want to hear your ideas about how we can take the next steps in building this connection.
Everyone working in or with local government at the moment is aware of the challenges of increasing responsibilities in times of uncertainty, constrained resources and the wide-ranging support needed by communities and individuals. And sitting above all these issues we have a changing climate impacting lives and economies and increasing the urgency for wide-reaching action. Climate change is not just a priority in its own right but should also be the context for everything that we do: for every service a council provides, every statutory duty and every policy and action implemented.
Local authorities are not only at the forefront of tackling climate change but also are central in convening the new ways of working needed for climate change solutions – to achieve Net Zero, to tackle the nature emergency, to adapt to the impacts and to deliver climate justice and a just transition. Operating within this changing climate we need to build on the creativity and collaboration already happening in local government, and the arts and cultural sector is well placed to offer a steer and support, particularly in bringing people together and communicating with different audiences.
Different ways to think about climate change
Climate change is a broad and complex agenda yet is often siloed into issues such as carbon management, energy, and roads and transport. At the heart of any climate action, we must all consider climate justice, as aligned in the existing and upcoming Just Transition plans by Scottish Government. The Improvement Service recently undertook work on public sector engagement with Just Transition plans which demonstrated the importance of and commitment to this agenda by local government. Creative Carbon Scotland have produced their own guidance on climate justice for cultural organisations, artists, and their collaborators. These guides communicate the ways that the arts and culture sector can highlight the injustices of climate change, platform underrepresented voices, build communities, and even provide alternative routes for people to influence climate policy. They also highlight the need for collaboration with organisations and groups outside the cultural sector and for careful consideration about which audiences are reached. Collaboration with local government can help unlock this potential by providing links to decision making processes and access to different audiences.
There is also a need for new ways of thinking to bring together the different priorities of equality, health and climate change and to understand how they meet and intersect within local authorities, their communities and their decision making. Cultural and creative practitioners can provide new ways of thinking and working, and unlock these in others too. The artist Francis Whitehead advocated for the idea of the ‘embedded artist’ (working within institutions and bringing their creative practice to bear on the ways that they work, aiming to make possible new methods and outcomes. A survey conducted by Creative Carbon Scotland found that even small measures like including a short creative activity at the start of strategic meetings can make a difference, with 88% agreeing that using creative approaches improved the meeting by facilitating deeper participation, and 64% agreeing that it had an impact on the outcomes.
Different ways to empower and engage communities
The Scottish Government has set out ambitious plans for engagement and behaviour change across society and the economy to deliver Net Zero by 2045. However, our behaviours are complex and to make changes we need to meaningfully engage with both the challenge and the opportunity. There are no neat boundaries to the impacts of climate change and our contribution towards it, so there is a need to work across communities, businesses and areas.
Communities are empowered by trust. Local authorities can be trusted messengers for some through their work in an area whilst cultural organisations can be trusted messengers for others, such as those who regularly use their services. Both have links into groups which might not otherwise engage with work on climate change, with cultural organisations creating accessible spaces for conversation using creative and engaging activities, and by mobilising their extensive experience on the importance of outreach work. They often have large audiences, which aren’t necessarily climate-focused, often have buildings to convene in, and promote and support collective thinking. For example, Rowanbank Environmental Arts and Education in Edinburgh were effectively able to use artistic methods to engage young people based in a disadvantaged area and share their perspectives on climate change widely.
The power of art and culture motivates and inspires people to engage and increases their confidence to take action and participate. Creative Carbon Scotland’s Climate Beacons programme found that artistic methods were effective in encouraging people to participate in conversations about climate change when they had previously felt excluded from the discussion. These included ex-mining communities, crofters and island residents; groups that local authorities may also need to reach when making plans for local action on climate change. Creative activities can provide space to collectively imagine the future that we want to create together, producing a positive vision of what we want to work towards as well as what we want to avoid. This guide on talking about climate change offers new ways local authorities and arts and cultural practitioners alike can talk about climate change in a meaningful way.
Where do we go from here?
In conclusion, arts and cultural organisations have the power to help local authorities and their communities take climate action to imagine and envisage different narratives for a better future. By working in partnership with local government, the arts and culture sector can provide ways to involve new audiences in local climate policy in more meaningful ways, create safe spaces for conversation on fraught issues and help decisionmakers find new ways of tackling wicked problems . This is how we see the connection working, but what do you think? Please get in touch with your thoughts!