Citizens and the climate: Towards innovative decision-making in public climate policies?

This publication is a synthesis of a study by International IDEA: “Deliberative Democracy and Climate Change; Exploring the Potential of Climate Assemblies in the Global South”. The two main crises of the 21st century are the erosion of democratic norms and freedoms and climate change. As the impacts of climate change on people, nature and societies intensify and become more visible, the level of social and economic insecurity that people experience increases, which in turn impacts democratic institutions negatively. Building on this interconnection, the report discuss the promises and first lessons learnt from the deliberative wave on climate in the Global North.
By taking example of citizen climate assemblies, it details how citizen deliberation can strengthen climate action, what are the main features, processes and discuss the open questions that remain to date such as the measurement of the impact. Further, several dynamics, specificities and examples of climate deliberations in the Global South are mentioned. Finally, tendency for near future are envisaged: creating common deliberative culture and tend towards more permanent mechanisms.