Worldwide collective project “WWViews on Global Warming”

Introduction

What does “WWViews on Global Warming” mean?
WWViews on Global Warming, a shortened form of World Wide Views on Global Warming, is the title of a collective project whose aim is to find out what the citizens of different countries around the world think about the issue of global warming.

Why conduct a worldwide project on global warming?
Natural disasters are becoming more and more frequent, ice floes are melting, glaciers are retreating: in recent years, the consequences of global warming have become all too visible, and this issue has become a major challenge for the world’s political leaders. Everyone has a growing awareness of their own responsibility in the process of global warming, and it is important that everyone should be able to express their opinions to political decision makers.
That is why the Danish Board of Technology (DBT), the agency responsible for technology evaluation in Denmark, has launched a worldwide participative project whose aim is to find out what citizens’ views are on climate change and to enable them to put those views to negotiators at COP15, the United Nations Climate Change Conference which is to be held in Copenhagen, Denmark, in December 2009. The negotiations that will take place there will be particularly important, and will make decisions on the issues arising from the Kyoto Protocol.

Aims of the project
The main objective of this project is to give citizens all over the world an opportunity to contribute to the debate on global warming, and to express their views on the key issues that will be addressed at COP15 in Copenhagen in 2009, in order to influence the negotiations and the future of global climate policy. Another goal is to demonstrate that citizens throughout the world can play a part in the political decision-making process.

Results

Results
Policy Report
Results are available on: http://results.wwviews.org

Recommendations
Swiss recommendations (Original)
Swiss recommendations (English)

Procedure

Methods

Citizens’ opinions and points of view will be gathered at events that will be held on Saturday, the 26th September, two months before COP15.
Around one hundred citizens will be chosen to best represent their country’s demographic diversity, and as far as possible their jobs must not be connected with global warming.
Citizens will receive information about global warming, and on the progress of the project before and during the event.
Around one hundred citizens will be assembled in a room, where they will be split into groups of 6-8 persons. We have adapted this method to allow for the fact that Switzerland is a multilingual country, and have therefore organised the event in three distinct locations (the German- and French-speaking regions of Switzerland and Ticino), dividing the group of 100 into three. The moderators for the discussions will be independent persons.
The discussions will be divided into two parts. In the first part, participants will enter their responses on multiple choice questionnaires, after debating each question among themselves. In the second part, citizens will make recommendations for political leaders, particularly the negotiators at COP15.

Timetable
Start of project: March 2008 | End: end 2009

Downloads

Policy Report

Swiss recommendations (English)

Article and Broadcast
26.09.2009, RSR La 1ère, Prise de Terre (French)

Events

World Wide Views on Global Warming
26th September 2009

Contacts

Project partners

National partners

Persons involved in the project
Responsible for the project at TA-SWISS

Dr Sergio Bellucci , TA-SWISS, e-mail
Nadia Ben Zbir, TA-SWISS, e-mail

Swiss partners

Alain Kaufmann, Director, Interface Sciences-Société, Université de Lausanne
Marc Audétat, Interface Sciences-Société, Université de Lausanne
Prof Edo Poglia, Università della Svizzera italiana
Giovanni Pellegri, Science et Cité, Università della Svizzera italiana
Michela Luraschi, Science et Cité, Università della Svizzera italiana

Advisory board

Dr Ruedi Jörg-Fromm,representative of the Swiss Federation of Trade Unions , (Member of the Steering Committee), Zürich
René Longet, Equiterre, (Member of the Steering Committee), Geneva
Dr Urs Neu, ProClim, Swiss Academy of Sciences, Bern
Ulrike Saul, Klimaexpertin, WWF Switzerland, Zürich
Mike Weibel,Federal Office for the Environment FOEN, Bern
Dr Elena Xoplaki, Oeschger Centre for Climate Change Research & NCCR Climate, Universität Bern

Project coordinators

Dr Lars Klüver, Danish Board of Technology
Bjørn Bedsted, Danish Board of Technology
Søren Gram, Danish Board of Technology

Communication

Susanne Brenner, TA-SWISS. email

Links

World Wide Views on Global Warming

Last update: 01.07.2010 nbz