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These dominant attitudes towards nature within Western societies provided

context for a continuing belief amongst some policy-makers that climate change was a fringe concern. One climate change ofÞcer summed up how the problem affected their efforts to reduce the local authorityÕs own carbon emissions:

ÒItÕs generally seen as someone elseÕs problem, people donÕt relate it to their own activities; people donÕt see how they can address it in their own work lives, in their own work environments.Ó (County 1 Climate Change Manager 1, interview 2)

As discussed below, this observation manifested itself in the divergent meanings placed on policies to reduce carbon emissions by climate change teams and

organisational colleagues working in other departments or service delivery areas. An

24 This is not a normative comment that climate change should be seen as an environmental issue, rather that it has emerged as an issue within, not transcending, environmental policy (Roberts, 2010).

extreme example of antipathy towards climate policy from policy practitioners came from a regional organisation, where one ofÞcer was given the nickname ÔSwampyÕ by colleagues:²⁵

ÒThatÕs taking it to the real n^th degree, but it's that attitude of ÔthatÕs something separate and I don't quite understand how it Þts with me. ItÕs not part of the mainstreamÕ.Ó (Regional 1 Climate Change OfÞcer, interview 1)

The ofÞcer was offering advice to local businesses on cutting carbon emissions through improving energy efÞciency. While such advice would appear relatively benign to climate change ofÞcers, for some colleagues from outside the Þeld it meant an association with a fringe movement, apart from the mainstream. While not usually expressed in such stark terms, the use of the nickname provides a vivid example of the barriers many ofÞcers described between climate change and more mainstream policy areas. Other barriers that were identiÞed included the unfamiliar lexicon of climate change, the challenge of relating climate policy to established organisational priorities and the long-term nature of the policy goals, expressed respectively in the following interview extracts:

ÒPeople donÕt like the term Ôclimate changeÕ, ÔcarbonÕ, things like that. They just go ÔerrrmmÕ! It can be a big turn-off for people. Generally people still havenÕt got their head around carbon dioxide. ÔWhat is that, so many balloons?!Õ [...] You can paint some pictures of polar bears and that doesnÕt mean that much to me.Ó (County 2 Climate Change Manager 1 interview 1)

ÒIÕve just been asked Ôwhat have we got to sell from a climate change perspective? How could I demonstrate that I have any value to add to anything? [...] Do they [the board] value it? I donÕt know if they do or not

25 Named after the environmental campaigner who became famous in the UK for living in tunnels as part of a campaign of direct action against the construction of a new road in Newbury (CauÞeld,

really, climate change is not high enough proÞle.Ó (Regional 2 Climate Change Manager, interview 1)

ÒHow embedded is it really? It's very hard... I think the times we're going through now, even getting staff to focus on 2020 as [you think] will we all be here [the organisation] or what will we be doing?! But when you start talking about 2050, 2080, I struggle with thatÕ.Ó (District 1 Climate Change Manager 1, interview 1)

Faced with such attitudes, one local authority ofÞcer explicitly saw running

community events which sought to make environmental and climate change issues more meaningful locally as a part of their role. By working with existing

communities, such as religious groups, sports clubs and arts festivals, the local authority can communicate more successfully than speaking as an outsider:

ÒThatÕs what we want, to make environmentalism mainstream and not something that sits alongside. I think part of the problem is that itÕs seen as a kind of green, weird people that sit over here somewhere. ThatÕs partly our fault because we have given that kind of image. You wanna get away from that and go Ôno, itÕs not weird stuff that happens behind closed doors, itÕs something that is affecting how we do our job and how we liveÕ.Ó (City 1 Climate Change Manager 1, interview 1)

A director from the same local authority who had responsibility for climate change echoed similar sentiments, describing the period prior to their arrival, in which environmental specialists dominated the agenda, was described in disparaging terms:

Ò[There were} a lot of like-minded people talking to each other, the outcome from which I donÕt think was immediately obvious. Friends of the Earth group, Health and Environment partnership group É I couldnÕt see what changed other than media activity. City planning, city

infrastructure wasnÕt taking place, in my mind.Ó (City 1 Director, interview 1)

On delivering these comments, the director adopted a mocking tone of voice and a facial expression suggesting that these groups could not be taken seriously,

expressing them as apart from the mainstream council activities of planning and infrastructure (City 1 Director, interview 1, Þeld notes). Once in post, the director took steps to move the agenda away from these specialist groups and become more in step with mainstream council activities; the focus shifted from public awareness-raising and communication towards infrastructure programmes.

In both of the above quotes from City 1, the environment was depicted as something apart from the everyday business of local public policy, with those focusing on environmental and climate policy seen as being unserious or even strange. As a result, policy-makers have been forced to Þnd new routes to some of the outcomes bound up in climate policy. As will be discussed in Chapter 6, progress has been made by talking about issues other than the environment, rather than a change in traditional attitudes.