Published: 15/06/2021
A NEW residents’ panel on climate change is being created to help shape Copeland’s response to the environmental crisis.
Copeland Borough Council is in the process of forming a People’s Panel made up of randomly selected residents from across the local area who will meet, debate and make recommendations to the council and other organisations taking part on where their priorities should lie to achieve the ambition of becoming a net-zero carbon borough.
Through the independent organisation, the Sortition Foundation, 6,000 letters have been sent to randomly selected addresses across Copeland inviting people to register their interest in joining the panel. The foundation will then select 30 people who reflect the diversity of the local population, both in terms of demographic make-up and opinions on climate change. Invitation letters will be sent out on Tuesday, June 15 and recipients have until Tuesday, June 29 to register their interest.
Once the panel is formed, it will meet up to 10 times in online and face-to-face meetings over the summer months.
With the support of Shared Future and an Oversight Panel made up of representatives from the local public and private sector, panel members will receive presentations from a range of experts on climate change providing multiple perspectives on climate change. They will then have the opportunity to debate and ask questions as they form their own recommendations at the conclusion of the process.
Mike Starkie, Mayor of Copeland, said: “The climate emergency is real and urgent - but we need to take people with us if we are to tackle it effectively.
“The People’s Panel is a different and exciting way of giving the community a voice and the ability to tell us where their priorities lie. It’s an opportunity to engage meaningfully with a representative sample of the public and listen to what they have to say – and I would encourage anyone who has received an invitation to accept it."
The Copeland People’s Panel on Climate Change is part-funded by the National Lottery Community Fund as part of the Zero Carbon Cumbria Partnership’s ambitious emission reduction programme to make Cumbria carbon neutral by 2037.
For more information visit www.copeland.gov.uk/copeland-peoples-panel-climate-change
