The National Centre for Climate Learning

In 2020, we embarked on a journey to make climate change accessible for communities all over the world. through our partner organisation, Elysium Environmental Learning Ltd. We started with schools and education and then evolved to develop bespoke exhibitions for heritage sites and wild spaces.

It was during the summer of 2022 that we realised we weren’t thinking broadly enough.

‘HEAT’ - A National Centre for Climate Learning, is simply a unique opportunity.

A chance to provide communities with agency and knowledge to tackle a seemingly enormous global crisis. To connect people with the natural world, inclusively, with lasting learning legacy, empowering people of all backgrounds, faiths and cultures to embrace this crisis head on, with practical climate action. The time has arrived to design a learning solution with permanency for the contemporary world.

We want to bring together scientists, environmentalists, educators, businesses and community leaders to form a national hub where we inspire a sense of wonder, urgency and equity. If not now...then when?

Motivation - my two young daughters who like everyone else’s children, will inherit the problem. We owe it to them to give them the tools to take action.

Anxiety and inaction are slowing our rate of progress against climate variation and are having an immeasurable impact on on our physical health and sense of well-being. HEAT will serve its community and beyond, to engage, inspire and bond people to the natural world.

66% of people on average would like to know more about climate change in the UK (Source - Peretia & Kings College London)

The climate crisis is an enormous global challenge that has yet to be conquered.

As climate experts and educators, we have created a concept to help tackle the climate crisis head on... with the inception of ‘HEAT’.

‘HEAT’ will be a National Centre for Climate Learning. An immersive, adaptable and inclusive environment where the community, schools, academics and businesses will be able to learn, together, enabling them to take climate action in their own community or work place.

We believe in giving the community agency and equity in the climate crisis to assist in changing minds, evolving peoples understanding of the climate issue and exploring a solution based approach through learning opportunities and creating engaging and inspiring opportunities to make a difference, both locally and internationally.

‘HEAT’ will be built on forging effective partnerships to develop and deliver impactful and lasting climate learning for the United Kingdom and beyond.

‘HEAT’ will be a multi-purpose visitor facility, grounded in community exploration through a climate change centre articulated into four key learning zones - AIR, H20, LAND and LAB.

Each zone will present an opportunity to explore and engage through immersive learning opportunities. Exhibitions and the arts will be integral to the visitor experiences enhancing a sense of well-being and reducing climate anxiety.

Each learning zone will provide a unique learning experience which will enable visitors to become digital tourists, exploring the world and its related climate issues through Virtual Reality. Each zone will also promote achievable climate action that visitors can undertake in their local community. We will explore sustainability, conservation and the most contemporary methods of climate mititgation.

Through organic learning, we envisage reconnecting communities to their environment, as custodians of change, armed with agency to make informed choices to live sustainably within their environment.

We will assist communities in navigating complex scientific theory by debunking complex terminology within a localised context.

‘HEAT’ will engage communities onsite as part of a visitor learning offer as well as explore outreach organisations across the West Midlands and beyond.

We will seek to engage all aspects of the community, inclusively, promoting access amongst minority groups and hard to reach aspects of the local community. A targeted marketing campaign will seek to make climate learning relevant and develop engagement by exploring localised learning alongside national and international issues. We will take communities to the heart of the problem and inspire achievable personalised climate action.

Our exhibits and learning content will be available in over sixty languages to welcome a diverse community. As educationalists, we will explore a range of access strategies to engage community members who may have an educational need or social and emotional difficulty through use of sensory environments, quiet zones, reflection spaces and physical and emotional therapeutic offers that are significant linked to climate learning.

We will engage with all schools and institutions across the region and beyond as part of an onsite offer, welcoming young people to learn about their environmental future in an affordable way. Aspiring to inspire.

Over 6 in 10 (64%) adults in Great Britain reported that they had made some changes to help tackle climate change, and a further 7% had made a lot of changes.

When asked about the specific actions they had taken to help tackle climate change in the past 12 months, the most frequently reported actions among adults in Great Britain included making changes to their:

• shopping habits (46%)
• travel (37%)
• diet (33%)
• garden (29%)

The most common reasons reported among people not making any changes included:

• feeling that large polluters should make changes before individuals (37%)
• that their changes will have no effect (33%)
• that it is too expensive to make changes (30%)
  

Of people who had taken actions to tackle climate change in the past 12 months, around 4 in 10 (41%) agreed or strongly agreed that the changes have had a positive impact on their life.

Located at the very heart of England, the West Midlands’ world-class, internationally significant economy and thriving business eco-system, underpinned by the UK’s youngest and most diverse population.

Home to 4.7m people and with an economic output similar to that of Slovakia, the West Midlands is one of Europe’s most dynamic, forward-looking and ambitious metropolitan regions.

Fed by nine world-class institutions producing 60,000 graduates each year, the West Midlands is the perfect hub to home connect with key delivery partners to establish the countries first centre for climate learning.

The West Midlands is home to an UNESCO Geopark located in the Black Country.

With the completion of HS2 alongside an already advantageous transport network, the West Midlands will be the home of ‘HEAT’.

The West Midlands is the epicentre of the Industrial Revolution, ingenuity and progress. We will harness that spirit in developing a solution focused approach to the issue of climate change, working in collaboration with ambitious partners who share our philosophy in developing a healthier planet.

Concern about climate change

The latest estimates from our Opinions and Lifestyle Survey (OPN) from 14 June to 9 July 2023 show that around two-thirds (64%) of adults in Great Britain said that in the past 12 months they had been worried (very or somewhat) about the impact of climate change (the same as in the previous period 5 April to 1 May 2023).

Groups of the population more likely to report having been worried about climate change include:

• those living in the least deprived areas of England (72%) compared with those living in the most deprived areas (50%)

• those living in the East of England (70%) compared with those living in the North East (53%)

• women (68%) compared with men (60%).

Adults living in the least deprived areas of England were more likely to report having made some changes to their lifestyle to tackle climate change (70%) than those in the most deprived areas (55%) and appeared more likely to have made changes to their home (16% compared with 9%), garden (34% compared with 19%) or shopping habits (47% compared with 38%).

‘HEAT’ will occupy a physical space that will need to be dynamic and flexible to house a range of digital exhibits, physical exhibits, learning spaces and conference space.

However, ‘HEAT’ doesn’t require endless square footage. We are seeking to be resourceful in the transformation of space in a sustainable way. We will develop a bespoke Net Zero plan from inception to operation to ensure that the impact of learning practises are mitigated.

We have imagined a space that is inspiring, contemporary and efficient and digital media will play a significant role in exhibiting learning material to reduce raw material use. Fixtures and fittings will be co-designed with sustainable materials. We aim to tell the climate story of our building and its contents. This will be an integral feature of our learning offer

We will engage with commercial partners who champion sustainable materials and processes.

Our visitor experience will be focused on our four key learning zones, at the heart of which will sit our ‘Tree of life’, a permanent exhibition to champion the preservation of our native woodlands and explore the plight of deforestation. This will be a central interactive learning area which will also feature as our place of reflection.

People across the world, and the political spectrum, underestimate levels of support for climate action.

This “perception gap” matters. Governments will change policy if they think they have strong public backing. Companies need to know that consumers want to see low-carbon products and changes in business practices. We’re all more likely to make changes if we think others will do the same.

If governments, companies, innovators, and our neighbours know that most people are worried about the climate and want to see change, they’ll be more willing to drive it.

On the flip side, if we systematically underestimate widespread support, we’ll keep quiet for fear of “rocking the boat”.

This matters not only within each country but also in how we cooperate internationally. No country can solve climate change on its own. If we think that people in other countries don’t care and won’t act, we’re more likely to sit back as we consider our efforts hopeless.

Hannah Ritchie (2024) - “More people care about climate change than you think” Published online at OurWorldInData.org. Retrieved from: 'https://ourworldindata.org/climate-change-support' [Online Resource]