The Coastal Communities Adapting Together (CCAT) project aims to support coastal communities in understanding climate change and how they can adapt to these changes. CCAT is focusing on communities in North Dublin in Ireland and Pembrokeshire in Wales, as the Irish Sea and its coastal communities are directly impacted by climate change.
CCAT is developing interactive games so that children and young people can understand how climate change is affecting their local area. Other initiatives include a cross-border learning exchange programme, cross-border knowledge exchange workshops and the creation of learning resources for schools and adult education. Communities are also being involved in collaborative local adaptation planning.
CCAT is led by University College Dublin in partnership with Fingal County Council and University College Cork in Ireland and with the Welsh partners comprising of Cardiff University, Pembrokeshire Coastal Forum (PCF) and the Port of Milford Haven. The project is part-funded by the European Regional Development Fund through the Ireland Wales Programme and is running from 2019 to 2021.
Climate Change Education Resources
As part of CCAT, PCF have curated a list of quality climate change resources which could be used in schools and also for others. Our topics of focus include: understanding climate change, exploring adaptation and taking climate action – and we link these topics to themes under the new Curriculum for Wales.
Virtual Field Trip to Amroth
We also created an interactive online field trip to Amroth, a coastal town in the south east of Pembrokeshire. Join us on a trip to investigate how the village links to climate change, from the post glacial forest, through its coal mining past to the on going challenges of coastal erosion and sea level rise.
Climate Change Challenges In Coastal Communities
Climate change is causing sea levels to rise, more intense storms as well as ocean acidification – all of which will impact coastal areas. Our new resource explores climate change challenges in a wider context across Wales and provides information on local projects taking action to adapt to these effects.
Climate Changes, Impacts and Actions for Communities
PCF has developed a set of bilingual climate change, impacts and actions cards to support engagement with community groups and facilitate structured conversations about climate change in their local area.
We trialled these cards with a series of online workshops for pilot groups from September to December 2020 and created a second version of the cards based on feedback from these discussions.
You can download each deck of cards and workshop guidance using the buttons to the right, and view the whole collection of cards online here. This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International License.
Climate Changes, Impacts and Actions for Young People
We also created a set of similar cards to support climate change education workshops for schools, students and young people, along with an activity pack to suggest some ideas on how to use the cards in a classroom or educational environment. You can download the card decks and activity packs in English and Welsh versions using the buttons on the right.
If you would like any more information, assistance with using the cards or to arrange a training workshop, please email Tim Brew (tim.brew@pembrokeshirecoastalforum.org.uk).
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International License
Pilot Coastal Community Engagement Work
PCF worked with Natural Resources Wales (NRW) to trial some of the climate change engagement tools developed by CCAT, including the CIA cards (see above) and an online participatory mapping tool. The work began in December 2020 and was completed in March 2021.
We produced two reports – one focuses on the results of the project and the other reflects on the lessons learned to share with others seeking to engage with coastal communities. Both reports are available to download below.
Understanding Public Perceptions of Climate Change
As efforts to address, adapt to and mitigate against impacts of climate change have become increasingly central to almost every sphere of political debate and dialogue, there have been growing calls for individual actions, some requiring significant levels of behaviour change, to be taken.
Alongside this, there are growing calls for improved understanding of the various factors influencing perceptions of climate change and how these translate into everyday behaviours and actions. Understanding public perceptions of climate change and related action has a valuable role to play in developing effective communication strategies, and in supporting the behavioural change required.
CCAT has conducted surveys to capture a baseline of attitudes towards climate change from various stakeholders including community groups and Pembrokeshire County Council who also recently declared a climate emergency.
