Report by NESTA: “A survey of 52 people working on participation in local government in the UK and the Nordic countries found that:
- a lack of funding and bureaucracy are the biggest barriers to using and scaling democratic innovations
- enabling citizens to influence decision making, building trust and being more inclusive are the most important reasons for using democratic innovations
- tackling climate change and reducing poverty and inequality are seen as the most important challenges to involve the public in.
When we focused on attitudes towards participation in the UK more broadly, and on attitudes to participation in climate change more specifically we found that:
- the public think it is important that they are being involved in how we make decisions on climate change. 71% of the public think it is important they are given a say in how to reduce the UK’s carbon emissions and transition to net zero
- the public doesn’t think the government is doing a good job of involving them – only 12% thought that the government is doing a good job of involving them in making decisions on how we tackle climate change
- not having the ability to influence decision makers and not having the right skills to participate are seen as the biggest barriers by the public….(More)”.