Tackling the climate crisis is tricky, because changing the way we do things is inconvenient. Third-year PhD student Emily Cole is helping local authorities make the tough choices and take action.
The political rhetoric around climate change coupled with the hugely ambitious national targets to reduce our carbon emissions, provides local authorities with an almost unattainable task. And how this is done ‘on the ground’, while balancing the need for high-level services for the community, is crucial.
But at Southampton, we put in the hard work and have the difficult conversations.
Emily is working with local authorities in Hampshire to understand the challenges they face, how they make decisions about land allocation, and recommend where renewable energy and conservation areas could go.
The crisis in context
The climate crisis refers to the global rise in average temperature since industrialisation over 100 years ago. The reason for the rise in temperature is the increasing production of greenhouse gases, emitted into the air.
In the UK, the government has pledged that the country’s greenhouse gas emissions will be net zero by 2050. Local authorities are playing a critical role in making this happen through various policy areas, including carbon emissions reduction.
“Local governments oversee a whole host of services, from transport and waste management to building new homes and infrastructure for health services. But they also must balance the need for spaces for renewables such as solar and wind farms, with the need to protect and expand spaces for biodiversity,” explains Emily.
“But can these spaces be used for both these things at the same time? They must also balance the trade-offs between the impact of these renewables and their development in the first place. My research is looking at these very issues and what this means to the local communities involved,” Emily explains.
Asking the difficult questions
Emily is helping local authorities make sense of national government targets, what this means for them and how they can shape their practices to meet these targets.
Together with the local authorities I am asking questions such as: where can they develop the infrastructure for renewables? Can they expand protected green areas to increase biodiversity? Can these new renewable developments and green spaces work together? How can they get the local community onboard and how will people be affected?
Emily, PhD student
Emily has a wealth of knowledge and negotiating skills in this crucial area having previously been a Senior Policy Advisor for Biodiversity Net Gain at the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (2021-2023), and an Environmental Consultant at Mott MacDonald (2017-2021). Emily also completed a master’s in biodiversity and conversation in 2017 at Southampton.
Sustainable change involves everyone
“My master’s at Southampton helped me to push myself, build confidence and think more carefully about the direction I wanted my career to go in. And my PhD is not only allowing me to focus on an area that I am passionate about, but also expanding my professional skills outside pure research,” says Emily.
The need to make sure land is allocated appropriately so that local services can live alongside wildlife is going to become even more important and complex with the UK’s plans for more devolution of powers from central government to local authorities.
“With proper planning, there is enough land for everything to work together. It is about being realistic and enthusing the local community to work with local authorities,” Emily explains.
People in our local communities care about the green spaces near to them so having their perspectives is vital to making sure that we can meet national targets in a sustainable way.
Emily, PhD student
