The Future We Want

The Future We Want chaired by Professor Jillian Anable, Chair in Transport and Energy, Institute for Transport Studies, University of Leeds, focused on how we can create an inspiring greener vision for the future, which will help build the mandate for change and tough decisions for the long term.

In opening the discussion, the Chair highlighted the urgency and scale of the net zero challenge and said that she was also acutely aware that competing priorities are likely to make progress difficult.

However, whether we like it or not behaviour is going to have to change.  We are either going to have to react to future events (extreme weather events, climate impacts, cost of living crises) or we change proactively so that we become more able to adapt, to be more resilient and protect ourselves into the future.

The question for discussion was how do we inspire with a greener vision for the future?  How do we communicate the trade-offs?  How do we get the mandate to change now?  The discussion should focus primarily on solutions and how we can make progress happen.

In summing up, the the Chair concluded that it is action that drives belief:

• We need to find pockets of success and share them.
• We all have different views of what we mean by vision, but essentially who is listening to our vision?  What are their priorities?
• We don’t necessarily have good evidence of the benefits (e.g. jobs, skills, levelling up, social benefits etc) to demonstrate to all layers of decision makers.
• We need increased focus on future challenges and the value of resilience.

The full write-up of the event can be viewed here:

Pathways to Net Zero – The Future We Want

The video of the event can be viewed here: