I’m just getting in touch to request some information under the Freedom of Information Act. The questions relate to any council funds put towards supporting people with climate anxiety in the community (sometimes known as eco anxiety) and educating residents on the issue.

1. Has the council launched or run any initiatives relating to climate anxiety? Please list all relevant schemes, consultations or initiatives launched or run in the past five years and include their costs and relevant timescales that they ran for. EG – Workshop run by X, cost £x – February 24, 2023. Please present these schemes in categories for the last five calendar years (including 2023).
The Council has not launched or run any initiatives specifically related to climate anxiety. We aim to facilitate dialogue within our community around the climate emergency, and empower our residents with information to address the climate crisis, thus indirectly addressing climate anxiety in the Borough. The Council’s Climate Emergency Team conducts or participates in climate change events and campaigns to bring the community together, raise awareness of the Council’s work and empower action locally. We also share successes and positive news on the work that we are doing or that is happening around our Borough that we are aware of, in our monthly Climate Emergency newsletter. This also focuses on the steps individuals and organisations can take to reduce carbon emissions. The Council has recently started working on climate adaptation, and as part of this the Climate Emergency team are working closely with colleagues in Public Health to assess the risks and impacts of climate change locally, including on the mental health and wellbeing or our community.

2. Has the council paid for the services (consultations or workshops) of Dr Patrick Kennedy-Williams and Megan Kennedy-Woodard?
No

3. Please provide any public documents or material created or shared by the council in relation to climate anxiety.
There are none specific to this. The Council has a Climate Emergency Action Plan (CEAP) in place, which lists the projects we aim to deliver in response to our commitment to do as much as possible to achieve carbon neutrality by 2030. The most recent CEAP covers a wide variety of related topics and may provide further information on the work we are doing around climate change as a Council. It can be found at https://www.wokingham.gov.uk/climate-emergency with the most recent being the third progress report.

4. Does the council have any policies or guidance in relation to climate anxiety and if so what is it?
The Council does not have any specific policy or guidance on this topic.