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Snap shot of the project
Project overview
Training program for local organisers
Through an intensive training program, 30 local organisers from across NSW, consiting of council staff and community educators, have been trained by expert facilitators, Associate Professor Lyn Carson and Dr Kath Fisher, to deliver deliberative forums on climate change mitigation and adaptation in their local communities. Bringing the community together at local deliberative forums The Nature Conservation Council of NSW has teamed up with 14 local councils to deliver local forums in urban, rural, coastal and inland locations across NSW. The input of forum participants has informed local council about the views of a diverse mix of the community who have worked together with local experts and facilitators and considered the issue of climate change in detail. Local forums were convened during October and November 2008 in Coffs Harbour, Armidale, Uralla, Guyra, Tumut, Swansea, Erina, Pittwater, Warringah, Blacktown, Holroyd and Penrith. A random selection process was used to invite 20 non aligned participants to each of the local forums, who matched their local community demographic as closely as possible (based on ABS data); so that recommendations from the forums can be considered to be reflective of the local community's view. With expert assistance approximately 180 community members explored the question How can we work together to respond to climate change? to offer detailed recommendations to local and state government.
Local forum participants were invited to attend the NSW Community Climate Summit in February 2009. A NSW community view Local council partners have been selected as forum hosts to represent the population distribution of NSW. Combining community input from the local forums will enable us to present a set of recommendations to the NSW Government which can be considered to be reflective of the NSW community view. A NSW Community Feedback Report, detailing the recommendations from all 12 local forums, has been delivered to the NSW Government.
Finding common ground at the NSW Community Climate Summit
Open dialogue between the community, stakeholders and the government is essential in creating a pathway for more effective government decisions. At the NSW Community Climate Summit, community representatives from the local forums joined with the broader NSW community to discuss and debate the best approach to climate change mitigation and adaptation. By finding common ground, summit participants produced a set of recommendations to present to the NSW Government which are reflective of a NSW consensus view.
Why is the project important?As the need to reduce our greenhouse gas emissions becomes increasingly urgent, and the groundswell of community concern over climate change gains significant momentum, it is imperative that opportunities are created for informed community participation in planning and policy decisions that affect our daily lives and our future.
This project will assist local and state government to understand and incorporate community opinions, values, priorities and expertise into their decision making, enabling decisions on climate change to be more reflective of the community view, and giving the community a stronger voice in decision making processes.
Why use deliberative democracy?A number of deliberative approaches have been used successfully throughout the world as a way of assisting citizens to participate in an informed way in the forming of public policy around complex and challenging issues; connecting citizen voices to local, state, and federal decision making.
Community participants are selected randomly, usually to match a ‘best fit' (demographic) sample of the population, ensuring that participants represent a balanced and representative cross section of their community. Deliberative democracy requires that these representative groups of ordinary citizens have access to balanced and accurate information, sufficient time to explore the intricacies of issues through discussion, and that their conclusions (a shared opinion) are connected to the governing process. 1  2The benefits of deliberative democracy are numerous:
* Best practice in governance and increased public trust
* Strengthening planning and decision making with community input
* Robust mechanism to bridge the gap between citizens, experts and decision makers
* Increased potential for conflict resolution
* Increased potential for critical thinking and innovation
* Increased capacity for problem solving
* Opportunity for a diversity of voices to be heard on important issues
* More community ownership of solutions to problems or issues
* Empowerment by participants to become more engaged on issues that affect them 1 http://www.deliberative-democracy.net/ 2 Carson, L and Hart, P (2005) 'What Randomness and Deliberation can do for Community Engagement', Paper presented at International Conference on Engaging Communities, Brisbane, Australia, 15 August.
What do we hope to achieve from the project?The impacts of climate change will be felt differently in communities across NSW. Unique climatic conditions and varying land uses mean that local ideas and priorities for climate change mitigation and adaptation will differ in urban, rural, coastal and inland locations across the state. Local forums will be held in a range of locations across NSW to reflect this diversity. By involving a representative group of the local community in the local forums, participants will present recommendations to local council on their preferred solutions to climate change which are relevant to local conditions and reflective of the local community view. This project aims to: * Give the NSW community a stronger voice in decision making processes around climate
change; by including a diversity of people in deliberations that directly contribute to climate
change decision making at a local and state level
* Facilitate a dialogue between government and the community on climate chang
* Strengthen planning and decision making on climate change with community input
* Increase the capacity of educators to engage with the community and government on
climate chang
* Foster learning and exchange on climate change solutions
* Build partnerships and strengthen local networks
* Empower the people of NSW to beome more active on the ienvironmental ssues that affect
them
How were local partners selected?A diversity of local council partners have been selected to participate in the project based on their location in NSW; land use in the region; and the strategic outputs within Council which will be facilitated by the project. The Australian Bureau of Statistics’ (ABS) Australian Standard Geographical Classification (ASGC) Remoteness Classification was used to classify councils across NSW into Remoteness Areas. Based on this classification and NSW population data, nine local council / region of council partners were selected by remoteness area to roughly match the population distribution of NSW. Remoteness Area | Major Cities | Inner Regional | Outer Regional | Remote |
Very
Remote | Migratory | Total | | Persons | 4,748,502
| 1,327,599 | 426,445 | 32,074 | 4,339 | 45 | 6,539,004 | | % of population | 72.62% | 20.30% | 6.52% | 0.49% | 0.07% | - | 100%
| | No of local partners | 6.54 | 1.83 | 0.59 | 0.04 | - | - | 9 |
Source: 2006 Census of Population and Housing
View the ACT and NSW remoteness areas map here [PDF 1.47MB]
The Australian Standard Geographical Classification (ASGC) Remoteness classification divides Australia into broad regions, based on how far one travels to access good and services. Based on the Accessibility / Remoteness Index of Australia (ARIA), Census Collection Districts (CDs) which share common characteristics of remoteness are categorised into broad geographical regions called Remoteness Areas (RAs).
Read more about the classification here [PDF 225kb] |
Local council partners
| Major Cities | Focus of local forum
| | 1. Penrith City | Greenhouse Gas Reduction Plan | | 2. Blacktown | Climate Action Plan
| | 3. Holroyd City | | | 4. Pittwater | | | 5. Warringah | | | 6. Gosford City / Wyong Shire / Lake Macquarie City | Climate Change Strategy | | | | | Inner Regional | Focus of local forum
| | 1. Tumut Shire | Climate Change Action Plan | 2. Coffs Harbour City / Bellingen Shire
| Climate Strategy / Action Plans | | | | | Outer Regional | Focus of workshops | | 1. Armidale Dumaresq / Uralla Shire / Guyra Shire | Climate Adaptation Plans |
How were local forum participants recruited and selected?Using ABS data, community profiles were developed for each local forum area using classifications such as age, gender, town/ rural residency (for regional locations) and place of birth (for culturally diverse locations) to determine the local demographic. Invitations to the local forums were sent to a random sample of the local community, utilising electoral rolls, phone books and GPS property databases. Additional methods of recruitment were also utilised in addition to the mail out, for example, invitations through relevant community organisations and networks (excluding those relating to the environment), local media, council newsletters and face to face contact at community venues, shopping centres and council venues. Respondents completed a questionnaire to provide demographic data. From the pool of responses, a random selection process was used to invite around 20 non aligned participants to each of the local forums, who matched their local community demographic as closely as possible, in relation to the determined ABS criteria. Forum participants came from a variety of backgrounds, professions and interests.
How will recommendations from the local forums across NSW be used?The local forums have enabled communities across NSW to make recommendations on their preferred solutions to climate change to local council. Local council partners have welcomed the opportunity for community input into their planning and policy decisions around climate change. They will use the local forums to gain community input for the development of various plans such as their Climate Change Adaptation Plans, Climate Change Mitigation Strategies and Greenhouse Gas Reduction Plans. How were summit participants recruited and selected?Invitations were sent to register for the NSW Community Climate Summit through community organisations and networks (excluding those relating to the environment), local media, council and community newsletters and word of mouth. From community responses, interested participants were entered into an excel spreadsheet. Community members were broadly caterogised as aligned and non aligned, and this classification, as well as ABS data (age, gender and location in NSW - city, inner regional and outer regional) was utilised to randomly select participants to closely match the NSW community demographic.
From the preferred non aligned list of community members, summit participants were selected by moving down the list, based on the first ABS classification (location in NSW). When sufficient participants were represented in each location category, replacements based on the next classification (age) were made. This process of replacements was repeated until the correct mix of age categories was represented. After sufficient participants were represented in each location and age category, replacements were made by gender. This process of replacements was repeated until the correct mix of males and females was represented. The list of more aligned community members was drawn upon to fill under-represented ABS categories as per the replacement process above. The overwhelming response to our call for participants enabled us to primarily draw on the preferred list of non aligned community members during the selection process. Summit participants represent a diverse mix of largely non aligned members of the NSW community.
We thank all community members who registered their interest in attending the NSW Community Climate Summit.
How will the recommendations from the NSW Community Climate Summit be used?Key recommendations from the local forums and the NSW Community Climate Summit will be presented to the NSW Minister for Climate Change and the Environment, the Hon Carmel Tebbutt MP. The Summit report will also be available to the media, business and the community. The NSW Government will consider these recommendations in the development of its Climate Change Action Plan.
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