The UK Natural Environment Research Council (NERC) will provide additional funding for The Green & Black Ambassadors programme, a joint initiative of the Cabot Institute, Ujima radio and the Bristol Green Capital Partnership. The programme aims to build a more inclusive dialogue around climate change challenges by addressing the exclusion of Black and Minority Ethnic communities in Bristol’s green movement.

This key issue is identified in the Cabot Institute's Action in the Face of Environmental Uncertainty report and was highlighted in the independent review of Bristol's year as the European Green Capital, released this month.

The Cabot Institute’s report emphasises the need to put equal, empowered and socially mobile people at the forefront of Bristol's environmental sustainability efforts.

Zakiya McKenzie, a post-graduate student in Environment, Energy and Resilience at the University of Bristol, is one of the first Green & Black Ambassadors. She has been working with fellow inaugural Ambassador, Jasmine Ketibuah-Foley, a UWE graduate and broadcaster, since October 2016 to incorporate the perspectives of Black and Minority Ethnic communities in Bristol’s green movement.

"Inclusion must mean that our [BME communities] insight and expertise is seen as valid, and even necessary, to the discussion around climate change and sustainability. While our experiences might be different, we are all living in the same city and must therefore co-create solutions to protect it for us all," said Ms McKenzie. 

The report's author and Director of the Cabot Institute, Professor Rich Pancost, states: "The main goal of the Ambassadors programme has been to challenge sustainability leaders, including scientists, to listen to more diverse perspectives - the challenges they face and the solutions they propose. This funding is about more than simply sharing our research with a variety of audiences, it’s about sharing, listening and learning; and being inspired to develop new research directions."

One of the founders of the Green & Black Ambassadors programme, Ujima Radio's Julz Davis, adds: "Tapping into the strength of our diversity requires not just goodwill but the creation of structures that promote inclusion, including training and genuine financial support of community partners. A primary goal of the Ambassadors programme is to co-create those structures."

Ian Townsend, Chief Executive of Bristol Green Capital Partnership CIC, adds: "Bristol Green Capital Partnership has a long history of working with people and groups across the city to explore and promote a sustainable, low carbon city with a high quality of life for all. We were delighted to co-fund this project and warmly welcome this additional funding from the NERC to further develop this exciting project."

Action in the Face of Environmental Uncertainty proposes a framework of principles to guide Bristol’s leaders and decision-makers, and those of similar UK and European cities, towards managing a future characterised by increasing environmental uncertainty.  The report brings together climate change research; academic, industry and policy expertise; and public perceptions and experience, collected during Bristol’s year as the European Green Capital in 2015. 

Report contributor and Cabot Institute Manager, Hayley Shaw, said: "Crucially, our consultations repeatedly revealed that we should emphasise actions on climate change that also create co-benefits such as improved health or community cohesion.  Not only does that increase the value of such efforts, it also engages a wider part of the population."