Evaluating the relationship between public perception, engagement and attitudes towards underground energy technologies

Abstract

This report summarises key findings from a series of participatory workshops used to evaluate the relationship between public perception, engagement and attitudes towards underground energy technologies. The main aim of this project is to get a better understanding of attitudes towards publicly-funded energy decarbonisation science from a cross section of society by evaluating public awareness and understanding of underground energy decarbonisation techniques, investigating the role of energy literacy and evaluating levels of engagement and public attitudes towards the £31m investment in UK Geoenergy Observatories and the UK earth science decarbonisation research agenda. Participatory workshops were developed to actively engage members of the public in discourse; these included pre and post workshop questionnaires, creative drawing exercises and participant-led discussions. In order to reach the target audience, the non-engaged public, and to encourage peer-to-peer discussions, an experimental approach was used in the recruitment process – that of inviting a variety of existing community groups to take part. Community groups included church groups, U3A, mother and baby and student groups. In total, 7 workshops were held in 3 different locations: Glasgow, Stirling and Lincolnshire; with 41 participants taking part.