The ‘Municipal Climate Citizens’ Councils’ project aims to actively involve citizens in the design and implementation of local climate protection strategies. In view of the urgent need to combat climate change, ambitious climate protection measures are to be made capable of gaining majority support through the broad involvement of the population. The nexus Institute, in cooperation with Mehr Demokratie e.V., is planning and implementing this participation project in order to strengthen the democratic legitimisation and implementation power of climate protection measures.
As part of the project, detailed concepts for the implementation of climate citizens’ councils in two partner municipalities will initially be developed. The citizens’ councils are selected by lot from the residents’ registers in order to ensure an approximately representative and diverse group. They then work in four consecutive workshops on climate protection measures in their municipalities and develop concrete recommendations for local policy. During the workshops, the randomly selected citizens are supported by experts. The recommendations developed are summarised in a citizens’ report, which is then presented to the public and handed over to the local council. The public is informed about and involved in the process and the results through broad public relations work.
Once the two citizens’ councils have been completed, guidelines will be developed to support other municipalities in designing and organising their own municipal climate citizens’ councils.
Duration: 06/2024 – 06/2027
Donor: Bundesministerium für Wirtschaft und Klimaschutz
Team: Uta Zetek (Project manager), Wiebke Blum, Katharina Fender
Project partner: Mehr Demokratie e.V.
Graphic: Vector Mine – stock.adobe.com