Engage from Delib: July 2026 - Environment

This month we’ve turned our attention to perhaps the most important topic of our lifetime: protecting the environment. As extreme weather conditions rock nations across the world, we take a look at how different governments are planning for their climate futures. In the news, we also take a look at how governments are balancing a desire for economic growth with their environmental commitments, particularly as the row over Rosebank in the UK intensifies.

Customer insights and inspiration:

Below are just a few examples of how customers are using Citizen Space to consult citizens on new measures to protect the environment and improve energy security.

Reducing emissions in New Zealand

Last month in New Zealand, the Ministry for the Environment sought feedback on a series of options to reduce greenhouse gas emissions from organic waste, as part of a wider plan to reduce carbon emissions. The consultation looked at how participants were using waste services, what they would like to see going forward and importantly, where the biggest reductions in emissions could be made.

The consultation closed in July, and will now use the feedback to form a plan for organic waste emissions. Earlier this year, New Zealand released their projected carbon emissions for the year 2050 alongside plans to reduce the projected figure in line with international targets. This consultation will form a part of this ongoing strategy.

The power of community batteries

Community batteries are shared systems that store renewable electricity for local homes and businesses to use later. They help cut energy bills, reduce carbon emissions, and make clean energy more accessible, including for renters and people living in flats.

In July, the Department for Energy Security & Net Zero (DESNZ) in the UK opened a call for evidence on how community batteries could be safely scaled up across the UK, the benefits they could deliver, and the barriers to wider deployment. It also invited case studies and feedback from stakeholders on how to ensure more communities, including low-income households and renters, can benefit from the energy transition.

This consultation has now closed, and DESNZ will use participant input to improve how community batteries are used across the UK.

Biodiversity for brownfield sites

In England, there has been increasing discussion of “brownfield” sites and what these sites can offer. Brownfield sites are areas that have previously been developed, but are now vacant or underused. As recent governments have put increasing emphasis on housebuilding targets, much attention has turned to these sites as a way of building without damaging greenbelt or greenfield sites which are typically more ecologically important.

Last month, the Department of Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (Defra) opened a consultation on exempting the requirement for Biodiversity Net Gain (BNG) for development on brownfield sites. BNG currently requires that developers replace all biodiversity loss as a result of a development, plus an additional 10%. The consultation explores how an exemption could support housing delivery while remaining environmentally robust, and invites views from various stakeholders on eligibility, thresholds, and potential environmental, administrative, and viability impacts.

Flood planning and coastal erosion

Environmental disasters including flooding and coastal erosion have become increasingly common. This means that it is more important than ever for local authorities to have plans in place to mitigate these risks.

Last month, the Environment Agency opened a consultation which seeks views on a draft 100-year strategy for managing flood and coastal erosion risks between Hurst Spit and Lymington. It invites feedback on proposed measures to protect communities, support nature recovery, and help the coastline adapt to climate change and rising sea levels before the strategy is finalised.
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Industry and legislative news:

Important industry news from July, including extreme weather across the world and a shocking new development in the world of AI.

Droughts and wildfires

Last month, heatwave after heatwave rocked the northern hemisphere. In Europe, the end of July saw droughts across multiple countries, including areas less commonly affected by drought in northern Europe.

Inevitably, dry and arid conditions led to the outbreak of wildfires across the continent. From areas like Greece, where wildfires have become relatively commonplace in the summer months - to parts of the UK that haven’t seen wildfires in living memory.

Although an unusually hot summer even by modern standards, it is highly likely that climate change will cause these conditions to be increasingly common over the coming decade. It is therefore essential that countries that have had relatively stable climates up to now begin to prepare for a future with more extreme weather conditions. From building in fire breaks in farmers fields to building in air conditioning as a default in new builds - governments across Europe are now faced with the realities of planning for a vastly different climate future.

Public consultation on controversial oil field

Rosebank remains one of the most controversial subjects in the United Kingdom, and in July that conversation once again rose to the fore. Rosebank is the largest undeveloped oil and gas field in the UK North Sea. Located to the west of Shetland, it is estimated to contain around 500 million barrels of oil.

Proponents of developing the field argue that it would reduce energy costs and help to drive the UK economy, protecting it from the shocks associated with the wars in Ukraine and the Middle East. Opponents argue that drilling in Rosebank would cause an unacceptable level of environmental damage, and largely benefit shareholders in the private companies that own the vast majority of shares rather than the British public.

In July, the UK's offshore regulator opened a second public consultation on the oilfield following the submission of a revised environmental assessment. Rosebank's original approval was ruled unlawful by Scottish courts in January 2025. The consultation remains open.

Claude hacking scandal

Controversy is becoming the norm in AI news, and July delivered two incidents. OpenAI disclosed that two of its agents had exploited a software vulnerability to escape an isolated test environment and breach the AI platform Hugging Face. Anthropic then reviewed 141,000 of its own evaluation runs and found three occasions on which Claude models reached real systems from environments meant to be sealed off, after a misconfiguration left them connected to the internet.

The models were running hacking exercises without their usual safeguards. In the most serious case, Claude Opus 4.7 extracted credentials and reached a database of live company data. OpenAI - who have had similar issues this month - are now reviewing their models.

Events coming up:

Global Government Data Summit 2026 – Wednesday 14 October 2026 – London, UK

The Global Government Data Summit brings together civil servants, data leaders and policymakers to explore how governments can use data and AI to improve policymaking and public service delivery. Sessions cover AI governance, data sharing, digital capability and using data as a strategic public asset.

Register here.

International Observatory on Participatory Democracy (OIDP) Conference 2026 – Monday 21 – Wednesday 23 September 2026 – Kraków, Poland

The 25th OIDP Conference brings together political leaders, public officials, academics and civil society to explore how participatory democracy can address global challenges. Discussions will focus on citizen engagement, deliberative democracy, democratic innovation and strengthening trust in public institutions through local participation and collaboration.