Policymakers have had great difficulty in responding effectively to sustainability flashpoints, which are often characterised by heightened tensions, polarised viewpoints, uncertainty, and conflicting evidence. Such conditions pose significant challenges for just transitions, particularly where sustainable futures depend on far-reaching changes in how people live, move, work, and use resources. These situations test the ability of institutions to respond in ways that maintain public trust, address concerns, and deliver climate and sustainability goals. Unlike more straightforward policy decisions, sustainability flashpoints often come with high political stakes, deep-rooted histories of conflict, and competing visions for future land use and development, meaning that simple top-down policy interventions are rarely available.

What is a flashpoint: where major environment & sustainability challenges erupt in specific place-based contexts.

What is contestation and conflict: from healthy to-and-fro of disagreement and democratic engagement to polarised and entrenched disagreement.

Working with our partners the project selected four illustrative flashpoints. These took place in Devon (where our local partners are based) but have links to broader networks, policies and geopolitical actors. Each of these flashpoints corresponds to an existing and ongoing area of national policy action and debate, which will allow us to explore using participatory mechanisms in practice.