A proposal transformed into official policy - fast
During the Northern Ireland Assembly election in 2007, the environment hadn’t featured as a big issue. WWF Northern Ireland wanted to push it up politicians’ agendas and to ensure that the Northern Ireland Executive took meaningful action to combat climate change.
We worked with WWF to develop a policy proposal which would have particular appeal to the DUP, the largest political party in the Assembly, and the party with both the Finance and Environment ministerial portfolios. At the time, there was considerable public anger at a large rates increase. We figured a rate rebate to reward householders who made their homes more energy efficient would have considerable political appeal.
In order to help sell the idea to politicians, we researched and drafted a briefing paper. We discovered a similar scheme was already proving successful in England and Wales. We included case studies featuring councils which had adopted the idea.
We highlighted other selling points – the fact people would save on their energy bills, the fact that the scheme could potentially be partly funded by energy suppliers, and survey evidence WWF had gathered of public support for the idea.
WWF submitted the paper to the Minister in June 2007. In August, the Minister met WWF to discuss the proposal. Three months later, Peter Robinson announced his intention to go ahead with the idea – and was even good enough to credit it to WWF.
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