Climate Jury Session One

Session One - People's Jury on climate change 'break the ice'

30 residents from the Preston People's Climate Jury met in Preston City Council Town Hall on 1 February 2024, kicking off the first of eight sessions.

The Jury, chosen to reflect the demographics of Preston, will meet over 30 hours during February and March, with the task of forming a set of recommendations on what organisations and residents across the city should be doing to help tackle the issue - including talks from experts on climate change and local emissions.

Climate Advisory Group

A Climate Advisory Group, an independent panel of representatives from local government, education, housing and business sectors, as well as community and faith groups and trades unions has also been assembled to ensure a fair and rigorous process is maintained and that local partners have a role within this journey too.

At the first session, new Jury members heard from Leader of the Council, Cllr Matthew Brown why Preston City Council is supporting the Preston People's Climate Jury and its importance. He explained how it linked with the Council's Community Wealth Building strategy, giving residents the opportunity to lead and drive change in their own city.

Councillor Brown said:

"It is great to meet our mini version of Preston, working together on one of the biggest questions of our time. Climate Change will affect all of us in the city in many ways, so we need to hear from our communities on how we tackle it together. I look forward to engaging with the Jury and seeing how their recommendations develop over the next couple of months. "

Councillor Henshaw, Cabinet Member for Climate Change, explained what the Council were already doing to address the climate emergency. This included £1.3M from the Government's UK Shared Prosperity Fund allocation, which has funded the Jury itself, studies into electric vehicle charging and support for Cosy Homes in Lancashire, driving down energy costs and reducing emissions in resident's homes.

The focus of this first session was for Jury members to find out more about the process, get to know each other and in finding out what the Jurors already knew and felt about the city. Breaking up into groups based on where they lived, Jurors discussed the negatives and positives of their area on the climate.

The next time the Jury meet on 7 February 2024, they will hear from expert commentators discussing what climate change is, and what are its impacts, locally, in the UK and internationally.

Please bookmark this page to keep updated on proceedings.