This weekend saw the first session of the five that make up the Citizens’ Assembly for Climate, a space where 100 citizens will carry out a participatory exercise to achieve decarbonised and more resilient societies that contribute to combating the climate emergency.

This weekend saw the first session of the five that make up the Citizens’ Assembly for Climate, a space where 100 citizens will carry out a participatory exercise to achieve decarbonised and more resilient societies that contribute to combating the climate emergency. It is the first time that a commitment to including citizens in the important issues that affect our lives has been celebrated in our country.

This citizen participation forum was born as a response to the necessary search for solutions to the climate emergency we are suffering. The call of the scientific community to promote an unprecedented economic and social transformation requires an informed society that promotes changes in production and consumption models through its daily behaviors and habits.

The Citizens’ Assembly for Climate is one of the priority lines of action of the Declaration on Climate and Environmental Emergency in Spain, enshrined in the Law on Climate Change and Energy Transition, and opens a new path to strengthen public participation: it will allow knowledge to be shared and proposals to be identified and debated to advance in the urgent response to climate change in our country.

In accordance with the first mandate of the Assembly, the participants will deliberate during the different sessions on the question “A safer and fairer Spain in the face of climate change, how do we do it?”, with the aim of drawing up recommendations that will be made public and sent to the Government and the Congress of Deputies to facilitate decision-making on climate change policy. To this end, the sessions of the assembly are organized in three phases: i) learning and knowledge, ii) reflection and deliberation and iii) preparation of recommendations.

FIRST SESSION: LEARNING AND KNOWLEDGE
The first phase of the Assembly will focus on learning and knowledge, in order to provide participants with common information and content on climate change, its causes and effects, climate scenarios and the introduction to adaptation and mitigation or issues associated with the regulatory context, among other issues. Its objective is to provide balanced and technical information and critical analysis tools that allow the development and sharing of visions and generate discussion on the urgency of addressing this global problem, with a view to deliberation in the following phases.

The next sessions will address specific topics, proposed by the group of independent experts, the main governance body of the Assembly.

THE DIVERSITY OF SPANISH SOCIETY REPRESENTED
The 100 people selected to participate in this process have been chosen independently and randomly by a specialized technical team. They make up a representative sample of a mini Spain, whose selection has taken into account the balance of different criteria such as regional distribution, population size, age, gender or educational level, among others.

The final result of its debates will constitute a report of recommendations that will be public and will be sent to the Government and the Plenary of the Congress of Deputies in order to facilitate debate and decision-making on climate policy. All this in a favourable regulatory context, as Spain now has a strategic energy and climate framework that will allow our country to be more resilient to the impacts of climate change and climate neutral by mid-century.

Information regarding the Assembly will be accessible to the public through its website and on its own networks, where all the relevant information will be updated on its upcoming sessions, progress and results.