CEP delivering online sense-making workshops as part of the fourth annual cycle of FORENV

CEP delivering online sense-making workshops as part of the fourth annual cycle of the EU Foresight System to Detect Emerging Environmental Issues 

CEP is continuing in our role of providing the secretariat for the EU Commission’s Foresight System for the detection of emerging environmental issues (FORENV).  Now in its fourth annual cycle, FORENV is focussing on identifying and characterising emerging environmental issues due to EU and global demographic changes. 

This topic will explore what projected European and global demographic changes, such as ageing and population dynamics within and between territories, might mean for the development of key sectors (such as mobility, agriculture and food, energy) and what the implications of these developments may be for the environment. 

To deliver FORENV, CEP is working with colleagues from Milieu (Belgium), Cranfield University (UK), the German Federal Environment Agency and Vision Communication (Spain).  The work to deliver each annual cycle includes: 

• A broad scanning to compile and characterise weak signals of emerging issues for Europe’s environment. 

• The organisation and facilitation of four participatory online sense-making workshops, to identify and select ten priority emerging environmental issues related to the topic (i.e. demography). 

• The characterisation of the ten priority emerging issues to define related risks and opportunities for the environment, through an evidence review and expert discussions.  

• Preparation of a final report including infographic presentation of each emerging issue. A short video is also prepared for each cycle.   

Miro board from last year’s workshop

Preparation for this cycle’s workshops is currently underway and these will be held online on 5th and 7th April 2022.  In total around 60 experts from the Commission, academia and NGOs will participate.  Across the workshops approximately 110 ‘weak signals’ of change related to the topic will discussed, clustered and prioritised.  CEP are leading the organisation of the workshops and will moderate them with support from our partners Cranfield University, Milieu Ltd and representatives of the European Commission. 

More information together with the final reports and videos prepared to date can be found on the Commission FORENV webpages. 

For further information please contact Owen White (Technical Director) or Rolands Sadauskis (Senior Consultant). 

New research published on understanding behaviours of recreational boaters to reduce disturbance and damage to seagrass.

Natural England have published a new report: “LIFE Recreation ReMEDIES Behaviour Change Project: Understanding the behavioural context ”, written by CEP in partnership with Plymouth University and Plymouth Marine Laboratory.

The ReMEDIES Behaviour Change Project aimed to help Natural England and partners develop evidence-based interventions to influence the behaviour of recreational boaters to reduce disturbance and damage to seagrass. This report responded to the Behaviour Change Project’s objectives to review current knowledge on:

• Recreational boating behaviours - specifically anchoring and mooring – with relation to their impacts on seagrass and the effectiveness of existing mitigation measures, and

• The behavioural context at two test sites: Plymouth Sound and Estuaries and the Solent Maritime Special Areas of Conservation.

Using the COM-B behaviour change model and associated Behaviour Change Wheel, CEP and partners studied the extent to which boaters felt that their Behaviour in relation to seagrass was influenced by:

• Capability (e.g. do boat users feel they can control the extent to which their activity causes damage?),

• Opportunity (e.g. do they have options for anchoring away from vulnerable areas?), and

• Motivation (e.g. to what extent do they feel that protecting seagrass matters to them?).

The Theory of Planned Behaviour was also used to explore boaters’ motivation in more detail.

The findings of the study explore the effects of anchoring and mooring behaviours on seagrass, potential approaches to changing behaviours to prevent damage to seagrass, and the barriers and facilitators to boaters taking action. Examples of some of the key implications for behaviour change strategies derived from the findings include:

• To be effective, interventions for behaviour change need to address the psychological (e.g. motivations, emotions), social (e.g. social norms) as well as the physical (e.g. Advanced mooring Systems) aspects of boater behaviour.

• Interventions should build on the desire of boaters to protect the ocean. Attention should be paid to incorporating messages that facilitate ocean connectedness.

• Collaborate with boaters to develop co-created solutions and encourage discussion around potential interventions to explore their strengths and weaknesses for a particular location.

The full report can be found here.

For more information about the project, please contact Clare Twigger-Ross (Project Director).

CEP to support the EEA in understanding drivers of urban sustainability

CEP has been awarded a new project to analyse drivers of environmental transitions in European cities

Collingwood Environmental Planning (CEP) (in partnership with Eunomia Research & Consulting), LSE Cities at the London School of Economics and Milieu has been commissioned by the European Environment Agency (EEA) to support the delivery of the EEA’s project aiming to better understand what enables or hinders environmental sustainability transitions in European cities, and how these factors may have changed due to the Covid-19 pandemic. 

This project follows a previous project delivered by a CEP-led team (2019-2020) which piloted a survey of the drivers and enablers of urban sustainability in European cities.  The results of this previous work were published in the EEA’s report Urban sustainability in Europe – What is driving cities’ environmental change?.  Using the method developed in this previous project, the new project involves a survey targeting 100 European cities followed up by 25 interviews.  The results of this project will directly inform the EEA’s ongoing work on urban sustainability, including the next European State and Outlook on the Environment Report (SOER) in 2025. 

This exciting new project builds on our long track-record of supporting the EEA in developing a knowledge base, conceptual understanding and assessments in the field of urban environmental sustainability.  More information on our wider work on urban environmental sustainability can be found here. 

For more information please contact CEP’s Owen White (Managing Director) or Špela Kolarič (Senior Consultant) for more information. 

CEP undertaking evaluation of Natural England's Environmental Benefits from Nature tool

CEP is undertaking the evaluation of Natural England’s Environmental Benefits from Nature tool. 

The Beta version of the tool was released for testing in July 2021. The tool is intended to expand net gain approaches to include wider Natural Capital benefits such as flood protection, recreation and improved water and air quality.

Natural England has been developing the Environmental Benefits from Nature (EBN) tool as a voluntary tool to encourage developers to consider net gain of wider ecosystem services at the same time that they work to achieve mandatory Biodiversity Net Gain (BNG).

The evaluation of the Environmental Benefits from Nature Tool (EBN) is intended to deliver the recommendations of the work carried out by CEP early in 2021 on the Creation of an Evaluation Framework for the Environmental Benefits from Nature Tool and ultimately support Natural England’s work to deliver the 25 Year Environment Plan (25 YEP) commitment to expand net gain approaches.

This evaluation will look at who is using the tool in the Beta phase, for what purposes, in what ways and why. The results will help take the tool forward into the future ensuring it is able to deliver on policy needs and requirements and that it continues to have the support of users.

The evaluation will:

• co-ordinate and evaluate up to 20 case-studies of users of the EBN tool, based upon a list supplied by the NE PM, to assess the impact of the EBN tool at different scales, in different uses and at different stages of development

• document the way the tool has been applied, the actions taken, why it has been applied in these ways and the results of these applications

• carry out a case study with a local planning authority (LPA) to take an in depth look at their experience of interacting with the EBN tool in their capacity of both approving planning decisions and acting as a consultee for changes in land use that do not require Local Authority planning permission.

The project will run till the end of March 2022.

For further information, contact Paula Orr (Technical Director)

CEP running a webinar on the creation and use of foresight information for national State of Environment (SoE) reporting

CEP to deliver a webinar for Western Balkan countries to build interest and facilitate discussion on the use of foresight information in their SOE reporting

CEP is part of a team commissioned by the European Environment Agency (EEA) to design and lead a webinar for national experts from Western Balkan countries on 28th October 2021, as part of the project ’Strengthening the participation of the Western Balkans in the work of the European Environment Agency 2020-2021. Actions for Water and Foresight assessments’. The project is being led by the European Topic Center on Inland, Coastal and Marine Waters (ETC/ICM).

CEP is responsible for the development of a checklist document for the assessment of the implications of Global Megatrends at the national level.  This checklist is intended to guide WB countries through the process of developing foresight content for national State of the Environment (SOE) reporting.

This checklist document represents a simplified version of the approach described in a methodological toolkit Mapping Europe's environmental future: understanding the impacts of global megatrends at the national level (Eionet report No 1/2017) also developed by CEP and published by EEA in 2017.  The streamlined process sets out clearly the steps that countries can take to complete a ’light-touch’ study suitable for preparing outlook information for SoE.

The webinar will present the checklist to national experts and elaborate how its implementation can help Western Balkan countries develop foresight content for national SoE reporting. The webinar will also provide an opportunity for participants to discuss and explore the proposed process and share expectations, and concerns for completing it.

Please contact Rolands Sadauskis (Project Manager) for further information on the project.

CEP research published on measuring recovery from extreme weather events

ClimateXChange has published a report prepared by CEP and partners measuring recovery from extreme weather events.

ClimateXChange has published the report ‘Measuring recovery from extreme weather events’ which was prepared by CEP and the University of Strathclyde.

This research built on CEP’s work on flood resilience and investigated international approaches to assessing recovery from extreme weather events, the data sources they use and their applicability to Scotland. The aim was to develop a common understanding of climate resilience and the critical components in planning for local and national recovery from extreme weather.

The report identifies monitoring frameworks used internationally which could be relevant to Scotland and evaluates the extent to which they would work with the approaches set out in Scotland’s National Performance Framework and the Scottish Climate Change Adaptation Programme (SCCAP).

Based on international experience, the building blocks for developing a system for monitoring recovery from extreme weather events in Scotland are:

• Framing recovery within a set of wider social goals such as wellbeing or resilience.

• An approach that establishes the different areas or recovery that need to be considered and the role the community will play in deciding the system to be used.

• A set of indicators of recovery.

• Joined-up data across different scales (national, regional/local and community) with a focus on process and outcomes.

• Relevance of the spatial scale at which data is collected and the timing and frequency of collection to the indicator.

• Drawing on existing information.

For more information, please contact the Project Director, Paula Orr (Technical Director).

CEP undertaking evaluation of Property Flood Resilience Grant Scheme for Defra

CEP are leading on a new project for Defra to carry out a process and impact evaluation of the Property Flood Resilience (PFR) grant scheme

CEP, in partnership with University of the West of England (UWE) Bristol and Flood Hazard Research Centre (FHRC), Middlesex University, has been awarded a project by DEFRA to carry out a process and impact evaluation of the Property Flood Resilience (PFR) repair scheme to help understand the effect of the scheme on resilience in flood affected council areas.

The PFR repair scheme is activated following severe weather events that impact multiple local authorities, lastly in February 2020 and November 2019. All eligible flooded properties have access to grants through the PFR scheme. To be eligible a council area has to have more than 25 properties flooded.

This project will evaluate how the PFR repair scheme’s delivery process has worked and the impact this has had in areas affected by flooding. The two key questions are:

• How effective are processes employed for delivering the Government Property Flooding Resilience (PFR) repair schemes in 2019 and 2020?

  • What benefits has the scheme delivered?

  • What improvements (if any) could be made?

• What is the impact of the scheme in council areas that have received PFR grants and have flooded since?

  • In these areas, did the resilience measures make a measurable difference and if so, how

  • How does this contrast with areas where flooding has occurred, but PFR has not been utilised?

  • Has the scheme contributed to increase the uptake of PFR?

The project started in August 2021 and will run until August 2022.

For more information, please contact Clare Twigger- Ross (Project Director, CEP) or Rolands Sadauskis (Project manager, CEP).

Collingwood Environmental Planning (CEP) becomes part of the Eunomia Group

Sustainability consultancy Eunomia Research & Consulting has completed the acquisition of Collingwood Environmental Planning (CEP). The acquisition process completed on 28th July. CEP is now wholly owned by Eunomia and becomes part of the Eunomia group.

The acquisition strengthens and widens the combined team’s expertise and capacity in a number of key fields, including water and flood risk management, natural capital and green infrastructure, policy evaluation, climate change adaptation, environmental foresight and the social aspects of environmental change.

In its 20th anniversary year, Eunomia employs more than 100 consultants across offices in Bristol, Manchester, London, New York, Brussels, Athens, Sydney and Auckland and works with supranational, national and local government, non-governmental and private sector clients. Eunomia specialises in policy, strategy, technical analysis and implementation advice to address the world’s environmental and social crises. It is a key advisor on circular economy and decarbonisation to the European Commission and many of the world’s leading environmental NGOs, brands, retailers and materials companies. It also carries out work on the natural economy, biodiversity and sustainable transport.

Founded in 1995, CEP works with a range of public, private and non-governmental clients both in the UK and internationally, including the EU institutions, to put the environment and communities at the heart of decision making by promoting positive environmental, social and sustainability change through robust and innovative research, strategy and policy support.

Joe Papineschi, Chairperson of Eunomia, said: “We’re hugely excited that, through our first acquisition, we’re bringing CEP into the Eunomia group. Our two companies are natural partners, driven by common values. We both take an evidence-based approach to maximise the positive environmental and social impacts of our work, and focus on providing high-quality advice with the aim of delivering practical solutions for clients.

“We’re a great home for the CEP team and thanks to their highly complementary skills and experience, together we will be able to expand our work in a number of key areas focused on the climate and biodiversity crises. The excellent reputation and track record of the CEP team allows us to offer services to a wider range of clients, increasing and amplifying the impact of our work.”

Ric Eales, Managing Director at CEP, said: “I am personally hugely proud of what CEP has achieved over the last 26 years. What has made CEP different as an environmental and sustainability consultancy has been our ability to operate at the nexus of research and practice, our inter-disciplinary approach, and our focus on new challenges and innovative approaches. We are delighted to become a part of Eunomia, an organisation that shares our culture and values, along with our commitment to delivering quality and innovation for clients. This presents a fantastic opportunity to continue our journey and significantly enhance our ability to deliver positive change and real impact.”

Following this acquisition, Eunomia aims to further strengthen and broaden its expertise on a range of specialist environmental and sustainability issues. Alongside continued strong organic growth, the company will be seeking further complementary acquisitions in areas such as sustainable food, farming and transport.

For more information, please contact Ric Eales (Director, CEP).

CEP taking part in a virtual Conference on Flood Risk Management: Science and practice for an uncertain future.

CEP taking part in FloodRisk conference: What is the future of communities’ and citizens’ “active involvement” in the delivery of FCERM to support proactive resilience? What are the challenge and opportunities for research?

CEP are taking part in the virtual FloodRisk conference which takes place between 22nd June – 24th June online.

Dr Clare Twigger-Ross will be leading a special session along with CEP colleagues Paula Orr, Rolands Sadauskis together with colleagues from Middlesex University Flood Hazard Research Centre (Dr Simon McCarthy) and HR Wallingford (Dr Jonathan Simm). The special session comes out of work CEP led on Community participation and Flood and Coastal Erosion Risk Management. It will be a workshop style session allowing for discussion and debate.  Prof Lindsey McEwen (University of West of England) and Susan Durden (US Army Engineering Corps) will provide short presentations designed to challenge and raise key issues specifically around community participation in long term adaptation. 

More information can be found on the website here.

Image credit: Alastair Wallace / Shutterstock.com

CEP to deliver a new project on local factors in managing flooding and coastal erosion risk and property flood resilience

CEP has been awarded a new project by Defra to analyse responses to a call for evidence on local factors in managing flooding and coastal erosion risk and property flood resilience

Collingwood Environmental Planning (CEP), in partnership with Middlesex Flood Hazard Research Centre (FHRC), has been commissioned by Defra to analyse responses to the Call for Evidence on Local factors in managing flood and coastal erosion risk and Property Flood Resilience (PFR) and the responses to a consultation on Amendments to the Flood Re scheme.

The Call for Evidence will explore:

• how we can strengthen our flood and coastal defence investment programme through better assessment of local circumstances, including how potential changes to the funding formula could provide further benefit to frequently flooded communities.

• PFR, which includes measures people can take to help reduce flood damage to their property and enable faster recovery (e.g. temporary flood barriers, raising plug sockets and so on), and ways of accelerating this policy and address any barriers to progress.

The Flood Re Consultation:

• Defra consulted on a number of proposals, including some which go further than Flood Re’s Quinquennial Review proposals in order to accelerate the uptake of Property Flood Resilience and better support customers and insurers to recognise these benefits.

The objective of the analysis is to enable government to implement the priorities for partnership funding and PFR as set out in the Flood and Coastal Erosion Risk Management (FCERM) policy statement.

In this project we are:

• applying a systematic approach to review stakeholder responses to Defra’s Call for Evidence and flood Re consultation including evidence submitted as part of responses; and

• delivering two workshops on the call for evidence with different sets of stakeholders to look in more depth at the evidence presented and to facilitate meaningful discussion of their implications for policy implementation.

The project started in March 2021 and is expected to run until June 2021.

For more information, please contact Paula Orr (Technical Director, CEP).

Urban Sustainability in Europe - EEA reports published

EEA reports on urban sustainability in Europe, co-authored by CEP, are now published.

The European Environment Agency (EEA) has published today two assessments on urban environmental change. These explore how European cities have the potential to lead the way towards a green, sustainable future.

CEP has been supporting the EEA’s work on urban sustainability in Europe since 2017. This has been undertaken as part of the CEP-led framework contract which provides assistance on forward-looking analysis, sustainability assessments and systemic transitions. The two reports that the EEA has published today were co-authored by CEP with our partners LSE Cities:

• Urban Sustainability in Europe – Opportunities for challenging times  – While the full impact of the COVID-19 pandemic is still being assessed, it is already clear that cities currently face a triple challenge of tackling the health impacts of the pandemic, dealing with the climate and ecological emergency, and addressing social and economic inequalities. This EEA briefing focussing on the huge challenges cities have faced trying to shift to a greener future in the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic.

• Urban sustainability in Europe – What is driving cities’ environmental change? – This EEA report explores work on what could make up a benchmark on how cities evaluate key drivers of and barriers to urban sustainability transitions. It is based on a survey and interviews with selected European cities.

Conceptual framework for urban environmental sustainability:

The EEA has developed an overarching conceptual framework for urban environmental sustainability to provide the basis for future assessments. The conceptual framework is based on four main components: lenses; context; enabling factors; and building blocks.

The briefing and report are part of a series of products the EEA will publish over the coming months on urban environmental sustainability authored by CEP. Future work will include a flagship report on urban environmental sustainability setting out the EEA’s conceptual framework and summary of analysis or urban nexuses focusing on climate resilience, quality of life, accessibility, healthy environment, food security, circularity, clean energy and sustainable buildings at urban level.

Upcoming report and outputs:

• Urban sustainability in Europe – A stakeholder-led assessment process

• Urban sustainability in Europe – Avenues for change

• Urban Sustainability in Europe – Learning from nexus analysis

• Urban sustainability in Europe – Glossary of key terms and concepts

For further information please contact Ric Eales (Managing Director)

CEP at EU Green Week 2021

CEP to present EU Environmental Foresight project at EU Green Week 2021

CEP has been invited to lead a networking event on our current work in implementing the EU environmental foresight system as part of this year’s EU Green Week – Zero Pollution for healthier people and planet.

CEP’s Owen White will be leading the session which will present the FORENV system and the results of activities to date from the current annual cycle, which is focussing on emerging issues that will impact our ability to deliver a zero-pollution ambition.

The networking event will be held on the European Commission’s Green Week online conference space on Wednesday 2 June 2021.  Green Week is a public event and the programme and registration can be accessed here.  More information on CEP’s current work on FORENV can be found here.

For further information please contact Owen White (Technical Director)

CEP presenting research on how to work with communities to manage the flood and coastal erosion risks

CEP presenting work undertaken for Defra and the Environment Agency on a flood and coastal erosion risk management research and development framework: working with communities.

Dr. Clare Twigger-Ross and Rolands Sadauskis will be giving a presentation on the work undertaken for Defra and the Environment Agency on ‘Communities and flood and coastal erosion risk management research and development framework’ as part of the ‘Simply Evidence Seminar’ hosted by Defra. This project developed a framework to determine the priorities for future research on how to work with communities to manage the risks associated with flooding and coastal erosion.

The presentation will focus on the approach to develop the framework, including the literature review and gap analysis, and will highlight the priority areas for future research that could shape existing and future research and help prioritise Environment Agency’s research funding. This webinar is organised following the publication of the key outputs from this work:

• Communities and FCERM research framework report

• Literature review report

• One-page summaries for each FCERM activity based on literature review findings,

The aim of the webinar is to raise awareness of the programme and to seek engagement from policy makers with the projects in the priority areas.

For further information, please contact Clare Twigger-Ross (Technical Director) or Rolands Sadauskis (Senior Consultant)

CEP successfully adapts FORENV interactive sense-making workshops for online delivery

CEP successfully adapts interactive sense-making workshops for online delivery as part of our role as secretariat for the EU Foresight System for the detection of emerging environmental issues (FORENV)

In our role of providing the secretariat for the EU Commission’s new EU Foresight System for the detection of emerging environmental issues (FORENV), CEP has designed and moderated four online sense-making workshops.  These workshop are part of the third annual cycle of FORENV, which is running from September 2020 – September 2021, and is focusing on the topic ‘Emerging issues that will impact our ability to deliver a zero-pollution ambition for a toxic-free environment by 2050’.

In the first two annual cycles of FORENV (2018-19 and 2019-20) these workshops were held physically in Copenhagen, Brussels and Ispra (Italy).  Responding to Covid-19 pandemic restrictions it was necessary in the third annual cycle to redesign the workshops to be delivered online.  Through this adaptation the workshops were delivered in a highly participatory and interactive manner.  We were also able to make use of a state-of-the-art media facility hosted by our partner on this project, Cranfield University, which enhanced the experience for participants leading to successful outcomes for the project.

The workshops were held on the 12th and 16th of April and engaged approximately 40 experts from the European Commission, EU Member States, NGOs and research institutions.

Across the workshops approximately 130 ‘weak signals’ of change related to the topic were discussed, clustered and prioritised.  CEP led the organisation of the workshops and moderated them with support from our partners Cranfield University, Milieu Ltd and representatives of the European Commission.

Drawing on the workshop outcomes, up to 10 priority emerging issues will be proposed for further consideration in the next steps of the FORENV system.

For further information please contact Owen White (Technical Director) or Paula Orr (Technical Director).

CEP presents at The International Food Regulatory Analysis Conference 2021

CEP’s Dr Sian Morse-Jones presented RESEARCH on Consumer Attitudes towards Emerging Food Technologies at The International Food Regulatory Analysis Conference 2021.

Dr Sian Morse-Jones contributed to a session on ‘The future of food – what are the new trends and technologies?’ presenting research on Consumer Attitudes towards Emerging Food Technologies conducted for the Food Standards Agency.

The development of new and emerging food technologies and their applications is a fast-growing area. The Food Standards Agency (FSA)’s focus on protecting consumer interests in relation to food means it needs to understand and keep up to date with consumers views towards these technologies.

Sian’s presentation focused on the key findings from a series of public dialogue events held in different parts of the UK to explore views towards GM foods, nanotechnology in foods, food from cloned animals and cultured meat.

The presentation and recording can be accessed on the conference website here

The final reports from the research are available on the FSA’s website here

For more information about this research please contact Dr Sian Morse-Jones (Principal Consultant, CEP)

CEP undertaking a review of evidence on Trends in Recreational Water Use for the Environment Agency

CEP has been awarded a project by the Environment Agency to undertake a review of the evidence on how people use the water environment for recreational activities.

CEP has been commissioned by the Environment Agency to undertake a review of the evidence on how people use the water environment for recreational activities involving being in the water (and potentially full immersion). In addition to desk-based research individual online interviews were conducted with people from key organisations supporting recreational water use  

The way people use water environments is changing. Not only is a broader range of activities (e.g. wild swimming, triathlon, surfing, paddle boarding, canoeing or kayaking) taking place but reasons for visiting water environments is changing. Recreational activities are more frequently taking place outside designated bathing waters as well as outside the traditional bathing season (May - September). This project is investigating these trends with a view to informing future policy decisions on bathing waters. The research is looking at trends in recreational water use in England including: 

• how members of the public use the water environment, 

• how has that changed over the last two decades,  

• what data sources are available that could help the EA to track these trends in numbers and patterns, and  

• what types of organisations support recreational water use. 

The project started in December 2020 and will run until March 2021. 

For more information, please contact Clare Twigger- Ross (Technical Director, CEP) or Spela Kolaric (Senior Consultant, CEP). 

Header image for this news article is from this source : https://www.whitewatermag.com/

Alex Holder joins CEP

Alex Holder has recently joined CEP as a Research Intern. Alex has a background in Chemistry, graduating with an Integrated masters degree in Chemistry from the University of Leeds. More recently she completed an MSc in Environmental Technology at Imperial College London, specialising in Urban Sustainable Environments.

Her thesis was conducted in partnership with the World Energy Council. The work involved developing a framework for a tool to assess the sustainability performance of urban energy systems. During her studies, she delivered a research project on the societal benefits of low pollution activities for Global Action Plan and led the development of a social enterprise project for cleaner cooking fuels in Nairobi.

She also has experience in science publishing, gained whilst working on the editorial team at Springer Nature, as well as experience working on research projects in Higher Education and delivering programs in youth work.

Alex will be working on a number of CEP projects including FORENV and the Biodiversity Net Gain evaluation framework.

CEP's EU FORENV work enters its third annual cycle

CEP is supporting the characterisation of priority emerging issues as part of the third annual cycle of the EU foresight system to detect emerging environmental issues

CEP is continuing in our role of providing the secretariat for the EU Commission’s Foresight System for the detection of emerging environmental issues (FORENV).  Now in its third annual cycle, FORENV is focussing on identifying and characterising emerging issues and benefits related to the Zero Pollution ambition for a toxic free environment.  

This topic relates to the overall green transformation for the EU towards becoming a climate-neutral, circular, clean and biodiverse region, as reflected in the European Green Deal.  It was selected by the European Commission as the focus of FORENV due to ongoing work at the Commission on a new EU Zero Pollution Action Plan for air, water and soil to be developed in 2021.  Once complete the outputs of this cycle of FORENV will feed into the first Zero Pollution Monitoring and Outlook report to be published in 2022.

To deliver FORENV, CEP is working with colleagues from Milieu (Belgium), Cranfield University (UK), the German Federal Environment Agency and Vision Communication (Spain).  The work to deliver each annual cycle includes:

• A broad scanning to compile and characterise at least 100 weak signals of emerging issues for Europe’s environment.

• The organisation and facilitation of four participatory sense-making workshops, to identify and select ten priority emerging environmental issues related to the topic (i.e. zero pollution).  Due to Covid-19 in this cycle we will are redesigning and running these workshops online.

• The characterisation of the ten priority emerging issues to define related risks and opportunities for the environment, through an evidence review and expert discussions.

• Preparation of a final report including infographic presentation of each emerging issue.  A short video is also prepared for each cycle.  The Cycle 1 video can be viewed here.

More information on FORENV can be found on the European Commission website.  The final report for the first annual cycle was published in December 2019, and the final report for the second annual cycle will be published early in 2021.  The methodology used for FORENV, which was developed for the European Commission through a previous project led by CEP, has also been published.

For further information please contact Owen White (Technical Director), Spela Kolaric (Senior Consultant) or Rolands Sadauskis (Senior Consultant).

CEP to support an evaluation of the Zero Carbon Britain Project for Centre for Alternative Technology

CEP has been awarded a new project by the Centre for Technology (CAT) to conduct a theory of change evaluation of the Zero Carbon Britain Hub and Innovation Lab

CEP, in partnership with Accelar, has been commissioned by Centre for Alternative Technology (CAT) to conduct a Theory of Change Evaluation of the Zero Carbon Britain Hub and Innovation Lab.

CAT’s Zero Carbon Britain Hub and Innovation Lab project will be delivered between 2020 and 2023 and will help communities, local authorities and policymakers to create Zero Carbon Action Plans, and to provide support for the development of innovative solutions, through 3 key mechanisms: an online platform or hub to provide access to information and resources and provide a space for collaborative working and action; training and support; and a series of innovation labs. 

In this project, we will support and work collaboratively with CAT in the monitoring and evaluation of the Zero Carbon Britain Hub and Lab. We will work with CAT to refine the project’s Theory of Change. We will collaborate on the development of a robust Monitoring and Evaluation Framework and method, which supports a formative evaluation process to allow the flexibility required in evaluating complex projects such as this one. We will advise on data collection needs and methods, as well as collecting independent evaluation data, and undertake analysis. And we will provide ongoing evaluation and support for the Zero Carbon Britain team in learning from the evaluation for the project itself as well as to inform CAT more widely.

The project started in October 2020 and will run until March 2023.

For more information, please contact Owen White (Technical Director, CEP) or Dr Sian Morse-Jones (Principal Consultant, CEP).