Citizens and climate: what place for citizen initiatives on the road to COP 30?

The necessary transitions of the twenty-first century highlight the need to rebuild trust between public institutions and citizens, key to supporting and reinforcing democracy around the world. Citizen participation has a role to play in complementing and enriching public action and supporting democratic values.

In the approach to 2030, combined efforts need to be made to close the existing gaps to achieve the Sustainable Development Goals. As a public development agency, Agence Française de Développement seeks to address these global challenges by supporting our partners in developing and implementing fair and legitimate public policies, by putting forward citizen participation mechanisms, among other initiatives.

Several formats and tools enabling citizen participation already exist, such as climate assemblies and other forms of deliberative democratic practices. The aim of the recent collaboration between International IDEA and AFD is to shed light on these practices, take stock of current trends, achievements, and successes, but also to highlight limitations and paths for improvement. Both in the North and Global South, these practices could play a significant role in building trust and consensus, and in finding solutions.

Join us for a 2-hour in-depth discussion on the role citizens can play in formulating, implementing and assessing climate policies. This event will explore the critical role of citizen participation in addressing climate change.
Organized around two panels, the first one will take a deep dive into the challenges and potential of citizen assemblies for climate change, based on a recent study of climate policies and public participation conducted by, International IDEA.
The second panel will discuss other forms of participation of citizens in climate governance, with a focus proposing a prospective views looking towards COP 30.

Programme

• Introductory session
• Citizen climate assemblies around the world: which lessons learnt?
• Prospection: what prospects for citizen initiatices in climate governance?
• Closing remarks

This event will be held in hybrid format in English, with interpretation into French available online. Doors will open at 13:30pm at AFD, Salle Jacques Alliot.