Managing social risk

Donna Luckman
Donna Luckman • 20 May 2020
0 comments
Authors: Taryn Lane & Jarra Hicks
A large portion of social risk can be managed through good community engagement.

Criticisms of participation and engagement in wind development processes include that efforts are tokenistic. There is also a risk that a poorly designed community engagement process will be seen as ‘hoop jumping’, where community engagement is a required activity needed to get development approval, rather than a genuine process of feedback and input.

Community opposition to wind developments can have negative impacts on overall social and policy environments, making the longer-term conditions for wind development more difficult. Thus, there is a need to ensure positive community relations and benefit, on a project-by-project level, to lead to the cumulative social and political conditions of support and normalisation needed for industry success.

Inadequate consultation and engagement with the community is a factor contributing to social conflict around wind farm development in Australia and overseas. This social conflict can lead to major time delays and cost increases for wind projects. A number of recent studies on public opinion of renewable energy in the UK found, across many instances and contexts, that public support for renewable energy developments is enhanced when active public participation in the project is present. Specifically, Walker and Devine-Wright found in their study of over 500 UK community energy projects that “more direct and substantial involvement of local people in a project . . . contributes to greater project acceptance and support for renewable energy”. Further, renewable energy projects that share the benefits of the wind farm more equitably and more broadly attract a greater and more active base of support .

Similarly, a recent study released by Australia’s peak scientific body, CSIRO, reveals the important role that early and well-designed community engagement can play in community acceptance, concluding that “inadequate consultation and engagement with the community is . . . a key process contributing to social conflict around wind farm development in Australia”. The report recommends that local ownership models of wind development can enhance the sense of acceptance and ownership both because the scale of development is more appropriate but also, because of the depth of consultation.

Community engagement
Principles for community engagement

More information

  • Walker and Devine-Wright (2007) p. 499; see also Devine-Wright, P. et al. (2007) An empirical study of public beliefs about community renewable energy projects in England and Wales, Working Paper 2: Community Energy Initiatives Project, Lancaster University.

  • Hall, N., Ashworth, P. & Shaw, H. (2012) Exploring Community Acceptance of Rural Wind Farms in Australia., Canberra: CSIRO
    Devine-Wright, P., 2011. Public Engagement with Renewable Energy: Introduction. In * P. Devine-Wright, ed. Renewable Energy and the Public: From NIMBY to Participation. London: Earthscan, pp. xxi–xxx.