Iswe and Partners to launch Global Citizens’ Assembly for People and Planet at UN Summit of the Future
By Jordan Raine
In 2021, Iswe and a global network of organisations and individuals ran the world’s first global citizens’ assembly. It brought together a snapshot of the human family to deliberate on the climate and ecological emergency, decide what they want to happen, and present these proposals to leaders at COP26.
Iswe has since been building on this work, convening collaborative efforts to design permanent governance infrastructure that allows citizens meaningful and lasting impact on civilisational challenges, from local to global scales.
The first iteration of a new, permanent global citizens’ assembly will be launched by Iswe at the UN Summit of the Future later this month, with a focus on the planetary emergency.
With the Brazilian government’s support, The Global Citizens’ Assembly for People and Planet will dock with COP30 in Belém. At the same time, it will empower communities to lead local action and call on leaders for change. It will also galvanise non-state actors - including civil society organisations, local governments, faith groups, and more - to make progress independent of multilateral negotiations.
This is the first in an ongoing series of updates covering the run-up to Belèm and beyond, in which we will share developments, calls to co-develop the Assembly with us, and opportunities for everyone who believes in the power of ordinary people to shape a better world to participate.
To keep updated, sign up to the mailing list of the Coalition for a Global Citizens’ Assembly - a coalition convened by Iswe to support the Assembly. Journalists wishing to cover the Assembly can also email aish.machani@iswe.org.
This first update covers the official launch of the Assembly and accompanying Coalition.
On 23 September 2024, backed by the Brazilian government, Iswe and partners are launching a Global Citizens’ Assembly for People and Planet, and a Coalition for a Global Citizens’ Assembly.
A launch event held during the UN Summit of the Future, and supported by the Climate Emergency Collaboration Group, the New York Society for Ethical Culture, the Wellcome Trust, and Avaaz, will explore the origins, vision, and next steps for the Assembly, and invite anyone who believes in the power of ordinary people to be a part of it. Register your interest in attending below.
The event will also be supported by the Brazilian government, who are committed to putting the Assembly at the heart of COP30, and will speak about how citizens can play a central role in COP30.
Members of the Coalition supporting the Assembly, as well as other leading thinkers and activists, will also explore how citizen deliberation can raise climate ambition and strengthen implementation:
Ana Toni, Vice-Minister for Climate Change, Brazil
Ralph Regenvanu, Minister of Climate Change, Vanuatu
Eamon Ryan, Minister for the Environment, Climate, Communications and Transport, Ireland
Laurence Tubiana, CEO of the European Climate Foundation and key architect of the Paris Agreement
Abdalah Mokssit, Secretary, IPCC
Sandrine Dixson-Declève, President, Club of Rome
Diego Casaes, Program Director, Climate Emergency Collaboration Group
Valeria Colunga, Executive Strategy Officer, Southern Voice
Hannah Balieiro, Executive Director, Instituto Mapinguari
Tolullah Oni, Clinical Professor, University of Cambridge
Rachael Orr, CEO, Climate Outreach
Motivating this new governance infrastructure is the recognition that COP30 must leave a different legacy to the ones that came before it.
That starts with ensuring that COP30 kickstarts a new era of substantive citizen influence in global governance. The Brazilian government is committed to creating a permanent mechanism for citizens to meaningfully input into COPs, and the Assembly is key to their plans.
But for Belém to truly be “the people’s COP”, its legacy needs to go further than just influencing multilateral negotations. That’s why the Assembly will also foster citizens’ agency to lead locally, and gather a coalition of organisations and institutions across the world who align their work with the Assembly’s conclusions.
The Assembly will have three components:
A core assembly: 100-300 people selected by civic lottery, demographically representative of the global population. The Core Assembly docks with multilateral decision-making institutions and guides the decision-making of any actor who subscribes to the Assembly’s legitimacy. Anyone on Earth could be selected.
Community assemblies: A large number of smaller local deliberations on the same topics as the Core Assembly. The Community Assemblies generate vast global data sets that inform the Core Assembly’s deliberations, as well as producing local action plans. The vision is for 10m+ people participate annually by 2030. Everyone on earth can participate.
A campaign, in which creatives and influencers raise public awareness of the Core and Community Assemblies and build widespread popular support behind and participation in proposals and actions. This crucial component cultivates the social mandate that compels decision-influencers to align behind the Assembly’s recommendations.
Launching alongside the Assembly is the Coalition for a Global Citizens’ Assembly. The Coalition unites governments, multilateral bodies, companies, and civil society organizations that enhances the impact of the Assembly. They do so by raising its profile, scaling participation in Community Assemblies, or championing its conclusions through advocacy and proactively implementing recommendations with the resources they have.
Some members of the newly formed Coalition for a Global Citizens' Assembly.
If you’re in New York for the Summit of the Future or Climate Week, join us for the chance to hear more about the Assembly and Coalition, find out how you can contribute, and get to know others interested in supporting a citizen-led future over refreshments. Register your interest below.
Over the coming weeks and months, we’ll be sharing more about the Assembly, as well as opportunities to co-develop and participate in it. To stay in the loop, join the Coalition mailing list, which will share updates from Iswe and other Coalition partners. That’s also where we’ll share links to livestreams and recordings of this and future events.
Finally, if you’d like to find out more about the Coalition and how to join it ahead of the launch event, you can do so at the Coalition website.