CEP LEADING EU SENSE-MAKING WORKSHOPS ON EMERGING ENVIRONMENTAL ISSUES

CEP TO LEAD FOUR SENSE-MAKING WORKSHOPS 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 will be moderating four sense-making workshops.  The workshops will be held between the 29th January and 5th February 2020 in Copenhagen (Denmark), Ispra (Italy), and in Brussels (Belgium), and will bring together approximately 40 experts from the Commission, EU Member States, research institutions and the third sector.

The workshops are being organised as part of the second annual cycle of FORENV, which is running from September 2019 – September 2020, and is focusing on the topic ‘Emerging innovations in the Green economy of the future’.  Across the workshops almost 200 ‘weak signals’ of change related to this topic will be discussed, clustered and prioritised.  Each session will be run in a participatory way to engage and draw on the knowledge of participants.  CEP have led the organisation of the workshops and will be moderating 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 at Flood & Coast 2019 conference

Dr Clare Twigger-Ross (CEP) a panel member at the 2019 Flood and Coast conference.

Dr Clare Twigger-Ross will be presenting, on 18 June 2019, a short paper on community resilience to flooding at the 2019 Conference panel session Climate change - how do we overcome the physical, political & societal barriers to meet the challenge.  The other members of the panel are:  

• Andrew Eden, National lead - climate adaptation & resilience, Environment Agency

• Craig Jones, Director, Circular Ecology

• Janet Taylor, Chair, Lune Valley Flood Forum

• Andrew Russell, Committee for Climate Change

• Jonathan Farr, Policy, Water Aid

Convened by the Environment Agency, the Flood & Coast conference 2019 is a unique event that advances the debate about flood and coast erosion risk, resilience and response between government bodies and local authorities with business, major infrastructure and asset managers, as well as affected communities. 

For more information please contact Dr Clare Twigger-Ross (Technical Director).

CEP leading EU sense-making workshops on emerging environmental issues

CEP to lead four sense-making workshops 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 will be moderating four sense-making workshops.  The workshops will be held between the 11th and 17th January 2019 in Ispra (Italy), Copenhagen (Denmark) and two in Brussels (Belgium), and will bring together 40 experts from the Commission, EU Member States and research institutions.

The workshops are being organised as part of the first annual cycle of FORENV, which is running from September 2018 – September 2019, and is focusing on the topic ‘Emerging issues at the environment-social interface’.  Across the workshops almost 200 ‘weak signals’ of change related to this topic will be discussed, clustered and prioritised.  Each session will be run in a participatory way to engage and draw on the knowledge of participants.  CEP have led the organisation of the workshops and will be moderating 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 leading workshop on the implications of global megatrends in the Western Balkans

Photo credit: 'Belgrade bridges' by mcveja on Flickr (CC BY 2.0)

CEP leading workshop in exploring the implications of global megatrends in the Western Balkans

CEP is leading a workshop on the “Implications of global megatrends in the Western Balkans region: Assessment of risks and opportunities, policy links and gaps” which will be held on 7-8 September 2017 in Belgrade, Serbia. This workshop is the second of two regional workshops held as part of the project Water Use in the Western Balkans: regional outlooks and global megatrends which is being delivered by CEP in collaboration with the European Topic Centre on Inland, Coastal and Marine Waters for the European Environment Agency.

The workshop will bring together regional experts to discuss risks and opportunities for the region and Western Balkans countries arising from global megatrend implications identified through the project scoping workshop held in April 2017.

This workshop will generate the following outcomes:

• A list of potential risks and opportunities each global megatrend implication presents for the region.
• An initial assessment of the likelihood of potential risks and opportunities, their extent and time-frames.
• Identifying existing policies or strategies that relate to the risks or opportunities, and any new policies or changes needed for managing risks and maximising opportunities.

For further information contact CEP's Project Manager Owen White.

EC publishes CEP's report on Public perceptions of environmental risks

European Commission publishes CEP's report on Public perceptions of environmental risks

The European Commission's Environment Directorate-General (DG Environment) has published Survey on public perceptions of environmental risks, a report of research conducted by CEP with partners at the University of A Coruña (Spain), the University of Latvia, Oikos (Slovenia), Sapienza University of Rome (Italy) and the West University of Timisoara (Romania).

This ambitious, Europe-wide project aimed to understand the differences between public perception and scientific assessment of environmental risks and the main factors influencing the evolution of public perceptions in Europe. The project used a mixed methodology research approach, including a survey of experts and focus groups with members of the public. 

While the issues of concern to members of the public were generally similar to the top risks identified by experts, in some cases the assessments differed widely.  This was the case with waste, which was of concern to public participants but not ranked highly by experts. The focus group discussions showed that while factors such as the proximity and scale of environmental risks do affect the way that lay people perceive these risks, their perceptions are also influenced by collective cultural, institutional and socio-political factors, including social values and the degree of trust in authorities. It was also clear that across Europe lay people are using multiple sources of information to develop their understanding of what are often complex environmental issues.

The full report can be downloaded here.

Clare Twigger-Ross at Defra's Flood Risk Advisory Group

Image by Wikimedia Commons (CC BY-SA 3.0)

CEP's Dr Clare Twigger-Ross at Defra's Coastal Erosion Risk Management R&D Theme Advisory Group

CEP's Dr Clare Twigger-Ross is attending the Flood and Coastal Erosion Risk Management R&D Theme Advisory Group organised by Defra. Clare is a member of the Policy, Strategy and Investment Theme Advisory Group. The Advisory Group's meeting is to discuss the research programme in this area for the coming year and to hear about projects that have completed in this area. It is taking place on 16 March at Birmingham.

CEP at Flood and Coast 2016 conference

FLOOD AND COAST 2016

CEP is participating in Flood and Coast 2016: Risk, Resilience and Response in a Changing Climate, a conference which is being held in Telford between 23 – 25 February.

Clare Twigger-Ross is presenting on Developing community resilience to flood risk - the role of flood groups in the session on Working with people and communities at 4 pm on 23rd February.

Paula Or is presenting on How to measure success in building community resilience to flooding - developing frameworks for understanding and evaluating community resilience to flood risk in a UK context in the session on Working with people and communities at 4 pm on 24th February