A new digital citizens' engagement platform to gather views on how to tackle the climate crisis has gone live for Yorkshire and Humber.

A Commonplace platform has been created specifically to gather feedback on the 50 actions in the Yorkshire and Humber Climate Action Plan. The site will run for over a year, with new topics being introduced regularly.

The platform, which launched on Tuesday 29 November 2022 at an online public event, is hosted by Yorkshire and Humber Climate Commission. 

The first two live topics are on retrofitting houses and regional food systems. There is also an opportunity for respondants to share local initiatives, projects and groups and highlight climate change impacts in their own areas by adding information to a map of the region.

People are invited to take part in the live surveys and sign up for alerts by email about new surveys and news items. 

More than 70% of citizens want to be involved in open, ongoing conversations, particularly about climate change, reported Amy Hazlehurst of Commonplace. "This is a fantastic opportunity to get the digitally engaged civically engaged."

Engagement all the way

For the Yorkshire and Humber Climate Commission, Co-Director Andy Gouldson explained that the new Commonplace platform will be used to further engagement with the delivery of the actions in the plan, which itself involved consultation with over 500 people when it was published in November 2021.

The Commission are running expert sessions on a range of topics in the Climate Action Plan, findings from which are summarised in draft Regional Climate Action Reports, along with a set of recommended actions for delivery. The draft reports, and recordings of the sessions, are shared on the Commonplace platform together with surveys and an opportunity for people to share their own views and read and agree with others.

All the responses to the surveys will be analysed and presented to decision makers across the region and nationally. The results be also be disseminated widely throughout the ongoing conversations on Commonplace, both in news stories on the platform and through the Commission's social media, policy reports and other channels.

A final summary will be published in a public report in March 2024.

Join the platform and have your say here: https://yorkshirecap.commonplace.is