Fostering citizen deliberations on the social acceptability of renewable fuels policy: The case of advanced lignocellulosic biofuels in Canada

It is widely recognized that a lack of social acceptance is likely to hinder the ability of governments to achieve policy targets concerning renewable energies. In this paper, we discuss the results of a pre- and post-test online survey that was conducted as part of the 2012 “Advanced Biofuels” deliberative democracy public engagement event in Montréal, Québec. The event sough to foster public learning and discussion in order to produce socially acceptable policy input for one type of renewable energy: advanced lignocellulosic biofuels. Survey results show that the majority of participants were strongly supportive of advanced lignocellulosic biofuel development in Canada after the deliberative event. By the end of the event, support also grew for current Canadian biofuel policies and many agreed that increasing biofuel production should be widely supported by the Canadian public. However, despite this support, about two thirds of participants revealed that they did not feel included in government decisions about biofuels. The gap between support after inclusive deliberation and expressed exclusion from Canadian government decisions points to the importance of fostering future citizen engagements in this area of renewable energy policy.