A series of ‘Roundtables’ were held with a selected group of key actors, each focussing on a key area of policy; transport and mobility, food and agriculture, and material consumption and the economy. The discussions centred around the role these sectors have to play in mitigating climate change and reducing carbon emissions in Wales. Through inviting different stakeholders from organisations and local communities across Wales, across policy and practice, and asking them to deliberate information about the main policy objectives in each sector, this research gains insight into the workings of how policy might be put into action. For policy relevant themes, there was a need to avoid the siloing, to reconceptualise metrics for progress away from the economic, and to encourage co-production and engagement between government, local authorities, business, and citizens. There were good examples of smaller projects across community transport, community supported agriculture, and sharing/fixing hubs that needs to be scaled up, with more consideration in planning and infrastructure that can facilitate the flow of resources, with better integration with public services and procurement. The importation of products and raw materials brought about concerns for farmers and those working to reduce wasteful consumption, where global international policy differs.The Centre for Climate Change Transformations (C3T) will be a global hub for understanding the profound changes required to address climate change. At its core, is a fundamental question of enormous social significance: how can we as a society live differently - and better - in ways that meet the urgent need for rapid and far-reaching emission reductions? While there is now strong international momentum on action to tackle climate change, it is clear that critical targets (such as keeping global temperature rise to well within 2 degrees Celsius relative to pre-industrial levels) will be missed without fundamental transformations across all parts of society. C3T's aim is to advance society's understanding of how to transform lifestyles, organisations and social structures in order to achieve a low-carbon future, which is genuinely sustainable over the long-term. Our Centre will focus on people as agents of transformation in four challenging areas of everyday life that impact directly on climate change but have proven stubbornly resistant to change: consumption of goods and physical products, food and diet, travel, and heating/cooling. We will work across multiple scales (individual, community, organisational, national and global) to identify and experiment with various routes to achieving lasting change in these challenging areas. In particular, we will test how far focussing on 'co-benefits' will accelerate the pace of change. Co-benefits are outcomes of value to individuals and society, over and above the benefits from reducing greenhouse gas emissions. These may include improved health and wellbeing, reduced waste, better air quality, greater social equality, security, and affordability, as well as increased ability to adapt and respond to future climate change. For example, low-carbon travel choices (such as cycling and car sharing) may bring health, social and financial benefits that are important for motivating behaviour and policy change. Likewise, aligning environmental and social with economic objectives is vital for behaviour and organisational change within businesses. Our Research Themes recognise that transformative change requires: inspiring yet workable visions of the future (Theme 1); learning lessons from past and current societal shifts (Theme 2); experimenting with different models of social change (Theme 3); together with deep and sustained engagement with communities, business and governments, and a research culture that reflects our aims and promotes action (Theme 4). Our Centre integrates academic knowledge from disciplines across the social and physical sciences with practical insights to generate widespread impact. Our team includes world-leading researchers with expertise in climate change behaviour, choices and governance. We will use a range of theories and research methods to fill key gaps in our understanding of transformation at different spatial and social scales, and show how to target interventions to impactful actions, groups and moments in time. We will partner with practitioners (e.g., Climate Outreach, Greener-UK, China Centre for Climate Change Communication), policy-makers (e.g., Welsh Government) and companies (e.g., Anglian Water) to develop and test new ways of engaging with the public, governments and businesses in the UK and internationally. We will enhance citizens', organisations' and societal leaders' capacity to tackle climate change through various mechanisms, including secondments, citizens' panels, small-scale project funding, seminars, training, workshops, papers, blog posts and an interactive website. We will also experiment with transformations within academia itself, by trialling sustainable working practices (e.g., online workshops), being 'reflexive' (studying our own behaviour and its impacts on others), and making our outputs and data publically available.

This research used deliberative research methods across twelve workshops with a total of 51 participants - a mix of policymakers, councillors, business owners, community workers and farmers. Participants were invited to discuss this content across two sessions, audio transcripts were recorded and transcribed. Participants were contacted via email after searching online for suitable candidates with relevant expertise. They were individuals working for relevant organisations.