About

Candice Howarth is Head of Local Climate Action at the Grantham Research Institute on Climate Change and the Environment, part of the London School of Economics and Political Science (LSE). She is co-Director of the Place-based Climate Action Network (PCAN) and oversees the Institute’s work on preparedness and resilience to extreme heat in the UK.

Her research interests focus on how the co-production of knowledge and science communication can be used to better inform decision-making in the context of climate resilience and sustainability challenges. She leads research on resilience to heat risk, communication and narratives of climate action, and models of local climate action. She has extensive experience in qualitative research design, delivery and analysis of semi-structured interviews, workshop and focus groups. As part of her work leading PCAN she leads the Adaptation platform and manages the network of PCAN Analysts, Associates and Fellows.

  • PI for the ESRC Place-based Climate Action Network (PCAN) (£3,5M)
  • PI for Enhancing stakeholder engagement and wider city action on climate change (ESRC)
  • Co-PI for Deeper support for local climate action across the UK (ESRC)
  • PI for Building a Culture of Heat (LSE Research and Impact Fund)
  • PI for Collecting time-sensitive data in the immediate aftermath of the 2022 UK heatwaves (LSE Urgency Fund)
  • She chairs the Royal Geographical Society Climate Change Research Group, is a member of the Royal Meteorological Society Science Engagement group and sits on the London Heat Risk Group
  • She co-leads the LSE Grantham Research Institute’s Heat Resilience Hub
  • She is a contributing author on Industry and Business for the UK Climate Change Risk Assessment
  • She is an Associate Deputy Editor of the journal Climatic Change and sits on the Editorial Board of the journal Environmental Communication.

She regularly advises a range of international, government and non-governmental organisations, and she is a frequent speaker at policy, practice, third sector and events. Her work has been covered by Sky TV, Channel 4, BBC Radio, Good Morning Britain, LBC, Daily Mail, Daily Mirror, Daily Express, The Metro, Evening Standard, Yahoo, The Independent, Lancashire Telegraph, The Global Herald, North Wales Chronicle, The Argus, MKFM and Wave FM.

Background

Prior to joining the Grantham Institute, Candice was a Senior Lecturer in Sustainability and Climate Change and Impact Lead at the University of Surrey. She was also the Knowledge Integrator for the Centre for Evaluation of Complexity Across the Nexus (CECAN) and previously led the Climate Action research theme at the Global Sustainability Institute.

She has worked in UK government (Department of Energy and Climate Change, Cabinet Office), a number of years in academia (Surrey, Anglia Ruskin, Imperial, Cambridge), conducted work for the European Commission, and has collaborated with a number of UK and international organisations.

Recently completed projects include: Assessing climate ambition in the UK climate emergency declarations (PCAN, 2020-2021), Exploring ‘new civil’ politics on climate change at local and national levels (BA, 2019 – Lead: University of Lincoln), Increasing resilience to UK heatwaves (University of Surrey, 2018), Visualising climate impacts (University of Surrey, 2018), Improving responses to Nexus Shocks (ESRC, 2015, 2016), Creating narratives on the UK 5th Carbon Budget (WWF, 2016), and The role of practitioners in the IPCC process (CCCEP, 2014). Candice has an interdisciplinary background in climate policy and pro-environmental behaviour with degrees in meteorology (BSc), climate change (MSc) and a PhD in climate change and pro-environmental behaviour.

Research Interests

  • Integration of climate adaptation and mitigation
  • Improving resilience to heat risk and the role of narratives
  • Communications, co-production, pro-environmental behaviour and the science-policy interface
  • Local and national public engagement and action on climate change
  • Assessment and evaluation of climate policy in the UK

Prospective PhD students

Candice welcomes enquiries from prospective PhD students with shared interests and a strong background in climate communication, local climate action, resilience to climate risks, and innovative mechanisms of climate governance.– Visit the ‘Study with us’ page for further information on applying to be a PhD student with us.

Research

Research - 2024

Research - 2023

Research - 2022

Research - 2021

Reflecting on two studies, this paper discusses the benefits of (and barriers to) encouraging more active and sustained engagement between climate action stakeholders so as to try to actively blur the boundaries between science and policy and, in doing so, invent new epistemological communities of practice. Read more

Through a comparative case study of two processes that ran in the UK in 2019 (the Leeds Climate Change Citizens’ Jury and the Oxford Citizens’ Assembly on Climate Change), this paper investigates how far citizen assemblies and juries are increasing citizen engagement on climate change and creating more citizen-centred climate policymaking. Read more

Using interview data with experts working on climate emergency declarations research across the UK, the authors of this paper critically discusses four themes that have underpinned and catalysed the changing geographies of civil-state relationships within the climate emergency and what this may mean for future global climate governance. Read more

Focusing on London, UK, this paper presents evidence collected via semi-structured interviews with experts and practitioners involved in the propagation of climate emergency declarations to critically explore how and why these declarations emerged, and the various different roles they are perceived to play for different local actors. Read more

Research - 2020

This Primer discusses the heterogeneous manner in which climate change messaging is received by different audiences, how social scientific approaches could help to better tailor climate change messaging to this varied landscape, and how attempts to close this gap must consider the emotional and affective dimensions of climate messaging. Read more

Research - 2019

Policy

Policy - 2024

This report presents insights on heat resilience policy and practice in the UK to inform future preparedness and responses to extreme heat, incorporating the experiences and views of decision-makers and practitioners who worked on the frontline of the 2022 heatwaves across England. Read more

Policy - 2023

Policy - 2021

Books

Books - 2021

Events

Events - 2021

Events - 2020

Events - 2019

News

News - 2023

News - 2021

News - 2020

News - 2019

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