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Infrastructure is crucial to the functioning of society and the economy. Yet, to avoid precipitating environmental breakdown, it must undergo transformation. We argue that citizens who rely on infrastructure's services should have a say in how transformation is managed. However, the complex nature of infrastructure means that public dialogue is difficult and rarely done well. Infrastructure has several characteristics, which make elicitation of perceptions challenging: it is connective, relational, obdurate, collective and subject to fragmented governance. We held a series of deliberative workshops in a city in the UK, to examine how public perceptions of infrastructure are shaped by these characteristics. We found that using infrastructure's characteristics as a framework for deliberation built participants' capabilities to articulate perceptions of infrastructure. We argue that using these characteristics also placed more emphasis on the socio-materiality of infrastructure and can address the disconnect between scales of participation and scales of decision making. This offers an alternative way to debate the desirable attributes of infrastructure, which we argue is more productive and inclusive. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Climate change mitigation has two main characteristics that interact to make it an extremely demanding challenge of governance: the complexity of the socio-technical systems that must be transformed to avoid climate change and the presence of profound uncertainties. A number of tools and approaches exist, which aim to help manage these challenges and support long-term decision making. However, most tools and approaches assume that there is one decision maker with clearly defined objectives. The interaction between decision makers with differing perspectives and agency is an additional uncertainty that is rarely addressed, despite the wide recognition that action is required at multiple scales and by multiple actors. This article draws inspiration from dynamic adaptive policy pathways to build on current decision support methods, extending analysis to include the perspectives and agency of multiple actors through a case study of the UK construction sector. The findings demonstrate the importance of considering alignment between perspectives, agency and potential actions when developing plans; the need for mobilizing and advocacy actions to build momentum for radical change; and the crucial influence of interaction between actors. The decision support approach presented could improve decision making by reflecting the diversity and interaction of actors; identifying short-term actions that connect to long-term goals and keeping future options open. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Existing international emissions reduction policies are not sufficient to meet the internationally agreed objective of limiting average global temperature rise to ‘well below’ two degrees, resulting in an emissions gap. Materials - such as aluminium, cement, paper, plastics and steel - act as a carrier of industrial energy that allows, through trade, the transfer of embodied emissions between sectors and countries. However, the use of materials has been overshadowed by policies focusing on energy efficiency improvements and deployment of a low carbon energy supply. This article argues that policies based on material and product demand can support domestic climate change mitigation and reduce the emissions gap, yet there is little obvious integration between climate and material efficiency policies. The article investigates current ‘emissions flows’ through the EU economy and how much of these are captured and excluded from existing EU climate policies. We analyse the potential increase in emissions coverage that would be achieved by extending EU directives that currently target the energy use of products (cars, buildings and appliances) in operation, to include the emissions required to produce the goods (i.e. embodied emissions). The analysis shows that a greater integration of material efficiency strategies within climate change mitigation policy could significantly increase the emissions coverage of existing product policies. Key policy insights Consumption is a key driver of emissions and demand reduction is an important policy option in reducing emissions, at least in the short-term, to reduce the risks of a longer-term reliance on technology breakthroughs and while the EU carbon price remains low. Emissions embodied in material-intensive manufactured products consumed in the EU represent the equivalent of over 40% of EU production emissions, offering significant scope for emissions reductions along product supply chains. Consumption measures that target the use of materials and products offer complementary mitigation options to low carbon energy supply technologies alongside costs savings. Existing EU policies addressing the energy efficiency of products can be used to scale up material efficiency measures. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]