Eunomia is calling on the UK government to consider a What Works Centre for the environment to share evidence on what works best when it comes to environmental policymaking – Consultant Alexa Cancio and Head of Evaluation Joe Hudson explains why:
In 2013, the Cabinet Office launched the What Works Network (WWN) to ensure those making decisions on public services are consistently informed by high-quality evidence on what works. The network exists to improve the way public sector organisations create, share, and use the best available evidence to improve public services towards becoming more efficient and effective. The network is currently composed of nine independent What Works Centres that tackle different economic and social policy areas including health and social care; educational achievement; crime reduction; early intervention; local economic growth; improved quality of life for older people; wellbeing; homelessness; and children’s social care. Although there has been widespread research on environmental issues for decades, there is no public body to bring all this evidence together.
Environmental regulation previously centred on emissions and environmental damage from organisational activities, but the role of individual behaviour in environmental issues is a bigger consideration than ever. The Committee on Climate Change, for one, advised in its latest report that over half of emissions reductions in their climate change scenarios require some level of behaviour change. This adds to the wider evidence of how environmental policy increasingly considers how to influence individual choice in a range of sectors. To view the full article visit Open Access Government.