Climate change - public engagement strategy: mid-point review

Executive Summary

Introduction

In September 2021 the Scottish Government published Net Zero Nation’ – a five-year Public Engagement Strategy for Climate Change (the PES). The PES is structured around three key pillars and the activities delivered are intended to help achieve these strategic objectives:

Strategic Objectives

Understand

People are aware of the action that all of Scotland is taking to tackle climate change and understand how it relates to their lives

Participate

People actively participate in shaping just, fair and inclusive policies that promote mitigation of and adaptation to climate change

Act

Taking action on climate change is normalised and encouraged in households, communities and places across Scotland

The PES committed to conducting an interim review of the strategy at the mid-way point of delivery. The aim of this review is to provide an update on progress towards these objectives, and help understand what improvements might be needed.

To achieve these aims, the review aims to answer the following questions:

1. What activities have been delivered since the publication of the PES?

2. What have been the key outcomes of these activities, and how do they reflect progress against the PES’s strategic objectives?

3. How does the approach taken fit with:

i) wider evidence on effective public engagement?

ii) what the public and our stakeholders say they want?

4. What learning from the above might inform the remainder of the PES’s implementation?

Methodology

The data sources that have been analysed to answer the above research questions include:

1. Project and programme monitoring and evaluation information. This covers a range of reports on funded activities including independent and self-evaluation and monitoring data. Analysing this quantitative and qualitative information provides a measure of what has been done and what it has achieved.

2. Stakeholder survey. To understand views and experiences of the PES among delivery partners and external networks, an online survey was conducted. The survey was shared with 280 organisations and received 67 responses.

3. Independent evidence review This independent review of international evidence on public engagement on climate change was commissioned by Scottish Government to support the PES mid-point review process. It provides valuable information on effective public engagement methods, principles, and approaches, as well as insights into attitudes towards these among the public in Scotland. Referred to throughout as Millar et al. (2025).

4. The Scottish Parliament People’s Panel report This report considers and makes recommendations as to how effective the Scottish Government has been at engaging the public on climate change. These findings provide an important source of evidence on public perceptions of progress for this mid-point review of the PES.

5. Scottish Household Survey data The PES committed to reviewing data from the Scottish Household Survey to monitor how Scottish public awareness and understanding of the climate emergency might be changing. It is not possible to attribute changes in these indicators to specific actions within the PES. However, trends should be taken as a gauge of progress being made towards the strategic objectives of the PES as well as a source of evidence to inform how its aims and activities are designed and delivered.

Key Findings

This report provides a summary of the key activities delivered over the period since the publication of the PES in September 2021, up to December 2024 (where data has been available). Highlights include:

• Development of a national network of Community Climate Action Hubs. Over £9.5 million has been distributed to the hubs since the launch of the first 2 hubs in September 2021. In 2023-24 the network distributed over £700,000 to over 400 community projects, provided support and advice to around 600 community organisations, and ran over 480 workshops and events reaching over 16,000 people.
• Launch of a new annual Climate Engagement Fund. Since its inception in 2023, the CEF has provided over £800,000 of funding to 16 climate engagement projects, reaching over 8,000 people in 2023-24 and over 7,000 people by Quarter 3 2024-25.
• Launch and continued delivery of a national communications campaign Let’s Do Net Zero, which in Oct 2021 reached 75% of adults in Scotland who saw the activity on average 9.7 times.
• Launch of a ‘one-stop-shop’ website for resources and information, Net Zero Nation which receives 80-100,000 visitors each year.
• Publication of the Scottish Government’s response to Scotland’s Climate Assembly’s report, hosting of a session between Assembly members and Ministers to discuss the response, and supporting a legacy project to enable members to continue to engage.
• Investment of at least £425,000 each year in the Climate Action Schools programme, engaging over 1,160 schools annually in understanding and taking environmental action.
• Delivery of over 100 events, engaging over 2,000 people through the Participation Programme to inform development of key climate change policies.
• Increasing the prominence of Scotland’s annual Climate Week which in 2024 delivered 13 Ministerial events; saw hundreds of external organisations participate; and prompted 3,588 uses of the campaign hashtag (almost double the target).
• Launch of the Climate Policy Engagement Network, a stakeholder engagement forum and platform for gathering views and sharing ideas.

Conclusions, reflections and next steps

The findings from this review largely confirm that the approach taken by Scottish Government to deliver the PES is consistent with the wider evidence base, while also providing suggestions on ways to improve and develop. Overall, as Millar et al. (2025) conclude, Scotland is already leading the way - not only in having a Public Engagement Strategy on Climate Change in place, but also in seeking to review and evaluate its progress. Millar et al. (2025) suggest that the PES should continue to provide a clear and positive vision for the future and use multiple approaches, including coordinating large-scale engagement and supporting smaller local engagement.

The evidence, learning, and reflections brought together for this mid-point review will help inform the delivery of Scottish Government’s strategic approach to engaging the public on climate change. It is clear from this review that improvements could be made to how activities delivered under the PES are monitored and evaluated. More consistency in data gathering and reporting, aligned to the PES Theory of Change, would help strengthen the conclusions that can be drawn. There is opportunity to take action on this for the remainder of the PES delivery period, and particularly for designing the end of PES review.

Public Engagement Strategy for Climate Change Mid-Point Review