Authors

Louis-Gaëtan Giraudet, Bénédicte Apouey, Hazem Arab, Simon Baeckelandt, Philippe Bégout, Nicolas Berghmans, Nathalie Blanc, Jean-Yves Boulin, Eric Buge, Dimitri Courant, Amy Dahan, Adrien Fabre, Jean-Michel Fourniau, Maxime Gaborit, Laurence Granchamp, Hélène Guillemot, Laurent Jeanpierre, Hélène Landemore, Jean-François Laslier, Antonin Macé, Claire Mellier, Sylvain Mounier, Théophile Pénigaud, Ana Póvoas, Christiane Rafidinarivo, Bernard Reber, Romane Rozencwajg, Philippe Stamenkovic, Selma Tilikete & Solène Tournus

Summary

Launched in 2019, the French Citizens’ Convention for Climate (CCC) tasked 150 randomly chosen citizens with proposing fair and effective measures to fight climate change. This was to be fulfilled through an “innovative co-construction procedure”, involving some unspecified external input alongside that from the citizens. Did inputs from the steering bodies undermine the citizens’ accountability for the output? Did co-construction help the output resonate with the general public, as is expected from a citizens’ assembly? To answer these questions, we build on our unique experience in observing the CCC proceedings and documenting them with qualitative and quantitative data.

We find that the steering bodies’ input, albeit significant, did not impair the citizens’ agency, creativity, and freedom of choice. While succeeding in creating consensus among the citizens who were involved, this co-constructive approach, however, failed to generate significant support among the broader public. These results call for a strengthening of the commitment structure that determines how follow-up on the proposals from a citizens’ assembly should be conducted.

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Authors

Dr Catherine Cherry (Cardiff University)
Dr Stuart Capstick (Cardiff University)
Dr Christina Demski (Cardiff University)
Claire Mellier (Global Assembly)
Lucy Stone (Our Common Climate)
Dr Caroline Verfuerth (Cardiff University)

Summary

National net-zero targets require ambitious policy and have implications for the way people will live over the coming decades. To achieve net-zero emissions by 2050, or sooner, requires active participation across civil society.

Citizens’ assemblies on climate change are a promising means by which citizens can be placed at the core of a democratic decision-making process to develop or advise on policies. In this report we show that a diverse cross-section of citizens can come together with minimal prior understanding and conclude in favour of farreaching climate policies, often going further than polls or politicians’ assumptions about public opinion suggest is possible. All the same, there is no single way to run a citizens' assembly on climate change: the ways in which they are designed has an important influence on assembly outcomes and recommendations.

In this report, we present an in-depth analysis of the Climate Assembly UK (CAUK), focusing on: a) the design of the process including its structure, scope and framing; b) the deliberations that took place and the underlying values surrounding how to achieve net-zero that they revealed; and c) assembly members' wider perceptions of climate change, derived from follow-up interviews with CAUK participants. We next examine the similarities and differences between the French Convention Citoyenne pour le Climat (CCC) and the UK approach; we also focus on the CCC's consideration of 'consumption’ and question the extent to which this allowed citizens to address the underlying and systemic drivers of unsustainable consumption. Finally, we explore the diversity of local and regional processes within the UK, emphasising their ability to galvanise action despite limitations surrounding the ability to achieve wider public engagement or specific policy recommendations.

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Author

John Stormonth-Darling, Iswe Programme Manager

Abstract

Change is persistent, and provisioning for prosperity in this complex dynamic world is not a simple task. Sustaining the conditions which enable certain prosperities can come at the expense of others whilst undermining the biophysical foundations required for all. In this paper I explore the tension between this need for sustainment and the inevitability of change by examining several conceptualisations and formalised frameworks for change which range from the holistic to the mechanistic.

I find that both prosperity and resilience in human systems are contingent on the skilful nurturing of the novelty emergent from the great diversity of knowledges at our collective disposal. With this assertion in hand, I attempt to design and assemble a meta-framework for change that can describe our dynamic world and gesture it towards a future of equitably co-existing prosperities through a craft of emergence. Following this and a hypothetical example of the meta-framework in action, I conclude that it can indeed be a useful tool provided it can bare the weight of further scrutiny and integration with other approaches.

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Author

Vicki Cardwell

Summary

Good Help is public service transformation movement. Good help builds hope, agency and enables people to take control of their lives. Our mission is to make Good Help the primary way we support one another. We use our knowledge, networks and skills to help more people benefit from Good Help. We are made up of frontline practitioners, public servants, charities, foundations and government agencies.

Despite waves of reform, reoffending rates in England and Wales have remained persistently high for the last 15 years. We argue that the objective of rehabilitation services should not only be to support people to live free from crime, but also to fulfil their potential.

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