Personal and Political Power: Citizens’ Assemblies on Climate

What: Personal and Political Power: Citizens’ Assemblies on Climate

When: Tuesday July 21, 12 pm ET

Where: Webinar (RSVP for details)

About the event

A legislative package to address climate change will require a mandate from the public. This event will introduce the Citizens’ Assembly on Climate, a direct democracy tool used by the governments of France, the UK, Ireland, and Poland to gather recommendations for political action on climate change.

Join us in hearing directly from researchers and practitioners of deliberative democracy. They will discuss:

– How effective Citizens’ Assemblies can be in creating momentum for policy

– How different political systems absorb the impact of Citizens’ Assemblies

– The potential for using this method to break through the political deadlock on climate policy in the United States.

Speakers

Moderator: Rebecca Leber – Environmental Politics and Policy Reporter, Mother Jones

Panelists:

Graham Smith – Professor of Politics and Director of the Centre for the Study of Democracy (CSD) in the School of Social Sciences at the University of Westminster and Senior Fellow at the Institute for Advanced Sustainability Studies, Potsdam and Honorary Fellow at the Centre for the Understanding of Sustainable Prosperity

Rebecca Willis – Professor in Practice at Lancaster Environment Centre, and Expert Lead for Climate Assembly UK

Claire Mellier-Wilson – Accredited researcher observing the French Climate Change Convention and facilitator for Citizens’ Assemblies on the climate crisis and air quality in Camden and Kingston.

Linn Davis – Program Manager for Citizens’ Initiative Review program at Healthy Democracy

About Citizens’ Assemblies

Citizens’ Assemblies on Climate bring a representative group of their country’s residents together to learn about the issues, develop connections, deliberate on ways forward, and to pass on recommendations to their governments. Participants of a Citizens’ Assembly on Climate demographically reflect their country or region and undertake the work together regardless of age, race, income, education, citizenship, or political affiliation to provide their lawmakers with a public mandate for policy action to address climate change.

The Citizens’ Assembly starts with legislators requesting this input from the people, and in doing so they agree to listen to the assembly’s recommendations and consider them for concrete policy, bringing the informed will of the people directly to legislators who are listening.

Event Hosts

Citizens’ Climate Lobby – DC Chapter @ccl_dc

Citizens’ Climate Lobby is an international grassroots environmental group that trains and supports volunteers to build relationships with their elected representatives in order to influence climate policy. The DC Chapter focuses on education events and advocacy that empowers people to unlock their personal and political power.

Climate Assembly US @ClimateAssembly

We are a group of advocates passionate about the opportunity to expand democratic methods to address the climate crisis. We advocate in our role as constituents who want real solutions as put forth by the people.

City Atlas @cityatlas

The mission of City Atlas is to help the public understand and prepare for the future of cities, as described in the reports of the IPCC and C40.org, and to strengthen the democratic process towards an equitable response to climate change.

Extinction Rebellion @XR_NYC

Extinction Rebellion is a global nonviolent movement to compel the world’s governments to address the climate and ecological emergency. Extinction Rebellion’s third demand is for the government to move beyond politics by creating and being led by the decisions of a Citizens’ Assembly on climate and ecological justice.