Environment, Climate and Nature: Increasing Public Engagement

What does the climate emergency mean for our communities, our future, and our responsibilities to one another?

In this keynote session, a group of University of East London students working on placement with the Climate Emergency Centres (CEC) network will share insights from a series of powerful talks and discussions featured on the CEC YouTube channel. Each student has explored a different theme — from climate justice and ethical governance to media change, social responsibility, and imaginative futures beyond crisis.

Drawing on these talks, the students will present short reflections highlighting key ideas, questions, and possibilities for action. Their contributions explore themes such as:

• Creating a Fairer Society
• The Climate Crisis as a Moral Challenge
• The Role of Media in Social Transformation
• Human Agency in a Changing Climate Reality
• Ethical Governance for People and Planet
• Welfare Not Warfare
• Thrutopian Thinking: Imagining Practical Hope

The session is designed not only to share knowledge but to spark conversation and critical reflection. Each presentation will raise questions and suggest further reading or viewing for those who want to explore the issues more deeply.

The keynote will also include a short contribution from Phoenix from the Climate Emergency Centres network, who will introduce the work of the CEC movement, the role of student placements in helping to get the message across, and ways people can get involved in community-led climate action.

Together, this session invites visitors to listen, reflect, question, and imagine the kind of future we want to build — for Newham and beyond.