Contested climate policies and public participation: An equal-opportunities-and values-based approach (EVA)

Immediate action is needed to reduce greenhouse gas emissions and combat climate change. People will act more sustainably if there are policies in place that incentivize and enable such behaviours. However, climate policies often face public resistance, especially when they turn into concrete projects (e.g., building wind parks). Stimulating public participation in decision making is an increasingly popular strategy to strengthen public acceptability of climate policies. Yet, there are challenges for public participation: exclusion, polarisation, and fake participation - all of which can reduce public support for climate policies. In this chapter, we demonstrate that the effectiveness of public participation depends on (i) the way it is regulated and organised, and (ii) public preferences for whether, when, and how to participate. We propose an equal-opportunities- and values-based approach (EVA) to public participation, aimed at enabling and motivating people to effectively participate in decision making on climate policies.