News

Strengthening Citizen Participation in Global Governance

April 29, 2024

Iswe Foundation, the United Nations Foundation, Plataforma CIPÓ, Blue Smoke, and Southern Voice have co-published a challenge paper on “Strengthening Citizen Participation in Global Governance”.

Exciting KNOCA News: Unveiling Our New Website and Enhanced Content

April 12, 2024

We are delighted to announce the launch of our brand new KNOCA website, coupled with an upgraded approach to our guidance resources. KNOCA is dedicated to providing useful resources designed specifically for those interested in organizing and advocating for climate assemblies and enhancing their impacts.

Registration Open for Spring School on Climate Citizens’ Assemblies

February 12, 2024

The second Spring School on Climate Citizens’ Assembly will take place in Budapest on 21-22 May. The School is collaboratively organised by KNOCA, FIDE and DemNet.

Evaluation of Luxembourg’s Citizens Council on Climate launched

January 25, 2024

Emilien Paulis, Raphael Kies, and Lisa Verhasselt from the University of Luxembourg have published their evaluation report of Luxembourg’s Citizens Council on Climate – the Klima Biergerrot (KBR). The report offers a rigorous analysis of the commissioning, design, delivery and impact of the KBR. The evaluation of impact covers not only effects on the knowledge and attitudes of assembly members, but also on the KBR’s impact on media, public opinion, climate policy and political actors.

Open call for KNOCA innovation market event in March 2024

January 23, 2024

Do you have an innovative idea about climate assemblies to share? Or have you come across a novel practice that you think the rest of the network should know about?We’re organising another of our popular “KNOCA innovation markets” on Tuesday 5 March at 2pm CET to learn about ideas and practices that could shape the way we do climate assemblies in the future. This could range from how we support learning, deliberation and recommendation writing within assemblies, through to how assemblies are integrated into democratic systems.

Spring School on Climate Citizens’ Assemblies – Save the Date!

January 19, 2024

On May 21-22, KNOCA and FIDE are working together again to deliver the Spring School on Climate Citizens’ Assemblies. This time we are working with DemNet to host the School in Budapest. The School is an intensive learning experience, primarily aimed at policy makers, civil servants and civil society actors who are considering running a climate citizens’ assemblies or want to learn more about this way of engaging citizens.

Call for papers for journal special issue

December 8, 2023

Stephen Elstub and Oliver Escobar, two well-known members of the KNOCA community, are editing a special issue of the journal Environmental Science & Policy on the theme “Citizens’ Assemblies in Climate Governance: An Analysis of Barriers and Enablers for Change”.

Global Citizens’ Assembly Network launched

December 4, 2023

KNOCA welcomes the emergence of a new research collective: The Global Citizens’ Assembly Network (GloCAN). GloCAN was founded after the launch of the evaluation report of the world’s first Global Assembly on the Climate and Ecological Emergency and aims to generate actionable insights to inform the governance, design, implementation, and evaluation of global citizens’ assemblies.

Call for Papers for Workshop on the Impact of Climate Assemblies

November 13, 2023

Next year’s Nordic Environmental Social Science Conference will include a workshop relevant to anyone working on climate assemblies: “Does what happens in a deliberative citizen assembly stay in the citizen assembly? Exploring the impacts of deliberative mini-publics on environmental governance and attitudes”.

Request for observers and facilitators

November 3, 2023

The first Skopje Climate Assembly in North Macedonia is taking place to find solutions for the significant air pollution, that affects health and well-being of residents of Skopje.The Climate Assembly will gather citizens from different backgrounds who will discuss with experts and prepare recommendations on how to deal with air pollution. Their recommendations will then be presented do the City of Skopje and the Ministry of Environment and Spatial Planning.

A New Theory of Change for Citizens’ Assemblies

October 23, 2023

Rich Wilson and Claire Mellier from Iswe and co-initiators of the Global Assembly have authored a provocative short article arguing that advocates of citizens’ assemblies need a new theory of change. They contend that “if citizens’ assemblies are to achieve significant change, they will need to step into the political fray and get real about how power and politics work”.

New KNOCA Briefing on Knowledge Curation

October 2, 2023

We know that the knowledge curation stage is of crucial importance in climate assemblies – both for securing informed deliberation and outcomes, and for the formation of assembly members’ attitudes. Selecting and presenting evidence raises a number of important questions considered in this KNOCA Briefing on “Knowledge Curation in Climate Assemblies”, researched and written by Malte Frøslee Ibsen.

What do citizens want? More sufficiency and regulation

October 2, 2023

Climate assemblies are more likely to recommend policies that regulate consumption and production of products and services compared to existing government commitments. This is the intriguing finding by Jonas Lage and colleagues, recently published in the academic journal Energy Research and Social Science.The study compares the proposals from national climate assemblies held across Europe with the policies adopted by governments in their National Energy and Climate Plans (NECPs).

New report by Energy Cities inspired by citizens’ assemblies

September 14, 2023

Inspired by the measures debated and recommended by citizens’ assemblies, Energy Cities has proposed a set of concrete targets for cities to advance the ecological transition. As the report recognises, many of the proposals that come out of citizens’ assemblies are much more ambitious than the policies currently implemented in municipalities.

New KNOCA Briefing on Designing the Follow-up to Climate Assemblies

September 4, 2023

KNOCA is convinced that we need to pay as much attention to designing the follow-up as we do the design of the climate assembly itself. We are thus publishing the draft briefing “Designing the Follow-up to Climate Assemblies: Embedding Recommendations Within the Public Administration” based on interviews and a design workshop with civil servants.

Autumn School on Citizens’ Assemblies

August 7, 2023

Our friends at FIDE (Federation for Innovation in Democracy – Europe) are organising their latest Autumn School in Helsinki, 12-13 October, to empower policy-makers, civil servants, and societal actors with the background and practical knowledge they need to implement successful citizens' assemblies. Partnering with Sitra, the Finnish Innovation Fund, the Autumn School aims to bring the deliberative wave to the Nordic countries and provide local expertise.

Guidance on integrating Polis into citizens’ assemblies

August 1, 2023

Organisers of climate and other citizens’ assemblies have attempted to engage the broader public using a range of strategies and tools. The online platform Polis has proved an attractive option for experimentation. For example, the Austrian Climate Citizens’ Assembly used Polis in an attempt to link its work to a nationwide digital conversation – with mixed success.

Evaluation of the Global Assembly published

June 26, 2023

The Evaluation Report of the Global Assembly on the Climate and Ecological Emergency was published earlier this month. The Global Assembly was the first citizens’ assembly that brought together 100 randomly selected citizens from around the globe. The Assembly deliberated on the topic ‘How can humanity address the climate and ecological crisis in a fair and effective way?’, producing the People’s Declaration for the Sustainable Future of Planet Earth, initially presented at COP26 in Glasgow in 2021. The Assembly can be seen as the first step in bringing the voices of ordinary citizens into the architecture of global governance.

New report: Innovations in local climate assemblies and juries in the UK

May 24, 2023

KNOCA made a strategic decision at the start of its work to focus its attention primarily on national assemblies. But this means that we have less knowledge to share about what is happening at local and regional level. Given the expansion in assembly practice, this could well be a hotbed of innovation – or it may be that everyone is doing exactly the same thing. We doubt it is the latter!

Open call for innovation market at KNOCA Annual Event 2023

May 4, 2023

Do you want to share an innovative idea in relation to Climate Assemblies? Or have you come across a novel practice that deserves to be shared with the network? We’d like to invite you to contribute to this year’s KNOCA Annual Event at a special Open Space session.

Climate Assemblies: Emerging Trends, Challenges and Opportunities

May 3, 2023

KNOCA has published a new report – Climate assemblies: emerging trends, challenges and opportunities – that draws lessons from the recent wave of climate assemblies and considers how they can improve their impact. The report was launched at the Spring School for Climate Citizens’ Assemblies organised with FIDE in Milan. The report explains the valuable contribution assemblies can make to climate policy and governance, along with examples of impacts on policy, institutions, public debate and assembly members.

Irish Children and Young People’s Citizens’ Assembly on Biodiversity Loss publishes its report

May 2, 2023

On Earth Day, the Children and Young People’s Assembly on Biodiversity Loss in Ireland published its report. The Assembly ran over 2 weekends in October 2022 in parallel with the adult Citizens’ Assembly on Biodiversity Loss. Designed in collaboration with 9 young advisors aged 8 to 16, the Assembly brought together 35 randomly selected members aged 7-17 from across Ireland to explore, discuss and create 58 calls to action on how to protect and restore biodiversity.

Spring School on Climate Citizens’ Assemblies a resounding success

May 2, 2023

On 27-28 April, KNOCA collaborated with FIDE (Federation for Innovation in Democracy – Europe) to organise a Spring School on Climate Citizens’ Assemblies in Milan. Based in the stunning Fondazione Giangiacomo Feltrinelli building, the two-day event attracted over 60 practitioners and policy officials from across Europe and beyond.

Recommendations and Report of Ireland’s Citizens’ Assembly on Biodiversity Loss published

April 11, 2023

The 99 members of Ireland’s latest Citizens Assembly – this time on Biodiversity Loss – has published its Recommendations and Report. Over seven meetings between May 2022 and January 2023, the 99 members agreed on 73 high-level recommendations and 86 sectoral specific actions and priorities. Central to the report is the expectation that the State will act decisively and urgently to address biodiversity loss and restoration and to protect Ireland’s biodiversity for future generations.

People’s Plan for Nature Published

March 23, 2023

The UK charities the WWF, the RSPB and National Trust have engaging in a unique collaboration with the public to produce The People’s Plan for Nature to protect and restore nature in the UK. The public engagement strategy combined a National Conversation with The People’s Assembly for Nature.

Spring School on Climate Citizens' Assemblies

February 23, 2023

From the European Green Deal to municipal master plans, the significance and priority of climate policies are increasing across all levels of government. The sense of urgency and complexity means that the challenge of climate policy is often portrayed as belonging to the technical domain. However, climate solutions entail diverse sets of consequences in the social and political arenas. In this context, Federation for Innovation in Democracy – Europe (FIDE) in partnership with the Knowledge Network on Climate Assemblies (KNOCA) are organizing a two-day Spring School.

How to engage civil society? Learning from the Austrian Citizens’ Climate Assembly

February 9, 2023

One of the key challenges for climate assemblies is to engage the broader public and civil society. Learning from previous assemblies, the European Climate Foundation funded two Civil Society Engagement Officers - Laura Grossmann and Paula Spilauer - to act as liaisons between the Austrian Citizens’ Climate Assembly (Klimarat) and civil society.

Conclusions of the Polish citizens’ assembly on energy costs published in English

February 2, 2023

The Polish citizens’ assembly on energy costs took place in October and November 2022, organised independently by the Shipyard Foundation (Fundacja Stocznia) with the Copernicus Science Center (Centrum Nauki Kopernik). Its purpose is to encourage local and central authorities’ action to fight energy poverty in Poland by producing recommendations on three dimensions of the problem: high energy costs, low income, and low energy efficiency of the buildings.

The long-term impact of participation in climate assemblies: Evidence from the UK

January 19, 2023

Involve, in partnership with Newcastle University, has published ground-breaking findings on the impact of participation on the members of Climate Assembly UK (CAUK). Their survey results suggest that taking part in CAUK has had a positive long-term impact on both members’ views and actions towards climate.

Integrating Pol.is into the Austrian Citizens’ Climate Assembly: A report

January 10, 2023

An ongoing issue for practitioners of climate assemblies is how to engage the broader public in the work of the assembly. The Austrian Klimarat (national climate assembly) that took place in 2022 experimented with the innovative digital democracy tool Pol.is. This is a rare example of a national climate assembly entering into a form of dialogue with the wider society via a digital platform.

Embedding citizens’ assemblies – Carnegie Europe publishes working paper

January 10, 2023

Just in case you missed it before the festive break, Richard Youngs at Carnegie Europe has published a working paper, “Closing the gap between citizen participation and mainstream politics”, which is highly relevant to KNOCA’s work programme. The paper considers how citizens’ assemblies might be “embedded more firmly and effectively within democratic arenas”.

December newsletter editorial

December 19, 2022

We are at an interesting point in the life and times of climate assemblies. With the completion of the Austrian, Luxembourgish and Spanish assemblies, we might reasonably say that we are at the end of the first generation or wave (to use the OECD’s metaphor) of national climate assemblies that began with the French Convention and Climate Assembly UK (or perhaps the Irish Citizens Assembly 2016-18).

Can citizen deliberation address the climate crisis? Not if it is disconnected from politics and policy making

December 15, 2022

How can we understand the impact of climate assemblies? In a recent blog, “Can citizen deliberation address the climate crisis? Not if it is disconnected from politics and policy making”, John Boswell, Rikki Dean and Graham Smith argue that greater attention needs to be paid to how assemblies are integrated into the world of politics and policy making.

Chris Stark, CEO of the UK’s Climate Change Committee, on experiments with deliberative engagement

December 15, 2022

The Foundation for Sustainable Development (FDSD) has published an interview with Chris Stark, CEO of the UK’s Climate Change Committee (CCC), where he reflects candidly on his role as an expert lead for Climate Assembly UK and the subsequent challenges of integrating deliberative methods into the CCC. Chris is interviewed by Jake Ainscough from the Climate Citizens project at Lancaster University.

Evaluation Reports of the Austrian Climate Citizens’ Assembly

December 2, 2022

Two evaluation reports of the Austrian Climate Citizens’ Assembly have been published. These two complementary studies, both funded by the European Climate Foundation, provide a comprehensive analysis of different aspects of the Assembly’s practice.Buzogány, Aron, Ehs, Tamara, Plöchl, Jana, Scherhaufer, Patrick (2022) Evaluation Report of the Austrian Climate Citizens’ Assembly. Assessment of input, process, and output.

Austrian ministries publish response to Citizens’ Climate Assembly

December 1, 2022

Seven Austrian ministries, coordinated by the Ministry for Climate Action, have published a 130-page formal response to the 93 recommendations of the Citizens’ Climate Assembly (Klimarat) presented in July 2022. The report offers a detailed response to each of the recommendations made by the Klimarat, providing explanations ranging from coherence of proposals with existing policy through to why the ministries are not willing or able to act.

The 2021 Global Assembly report published

November 25, 2022

On November 18th, the 2021 Global Assembly released its report explaining the rationale, methodology, and outcomes of the process. The People’s Declaration for the Sustainable Future of the Planet Earth that emerged from the assembly members’ deliberations last year is contextualized with detailed explanations of how and why the Global Assembly was organized, the diversity of its impacts, and lessons for future practice.

Brussels launches permanent citizens' assembly on climate

November 17, 2022

The Brussels-Capital Region has announced that it will launch a permanent Citizens’ Assembly on Climate in 2023. Each year, the assembly will bring together 100 citizens to select topics, deliberate and come to recommendations. The citizens will also have a role in following up what the Brussels government does with the recommendations.

Climate Citizens Visiting Fellowship Scheme

October 12, 2022

The Climate Citizens project, based at Lancaster University, is inviting applications for Visiting Fellows. The scheme is open to anyone working on public engagement on climate and energy issues in any capacity, including (but not limited to): civil servants, public engagement consultants, professional facilitators, academics at any careers stage including PhD researchers, and researchers or policy professionals from the private sector, think tanks, NGOs or Trade Unions.

Luxembourg climate assembly launches final report

September 29, 2022

On Thursday 15 September, the Luxembourg Kima-Biergerrot (Citizens’ Climate Assembly) presented its final report to Prime Minister Xavier Bettel, the Minister of Energie Claude Turmes, and the Minister of Environment Joëlle Welfring. The report contains 56 recommendations to accelerate and intensify climate action in Luxembourg. The launch of the report generated a fair degree of media coverage.

'Citizens’ assemblies for the climate: a political or technocratic response to the ecological challenge?'

September 6, 2022

On Thursday 8 and Friday 9 September, KNOCA will be supporting the EU PHOENIX research project, Maison Française d’Oxford, Paris-Lumières University, Paris 8 University and Nuffield College in hosting a conference 'Citizens' assemblies for the climate: a political or technocratic response to the ecological challenge?'.

Report on best practices for citizens' assemblies on climate

August 23, 2022

As part of the Dutch government traineeship programme (Rijkstraineeship), six young Dutch civil servants were tasked by the Ministry of Economic Affairs and Climate Policy to investigate the best practices of climate assemblies worldwide. The group undertook desk-research as well as an interactive digital session with experts from various countries facilitated by Graham Smith, Chair of KNOCA

Austrian Climate Assembly publishes recommendations

July 6, 2022

On Monday 4 July, the Austrian Climate Assembly published its report consisting of 93 recommendations The report was officially received at a press conference with Leonore Gewessler, Minister for Climate Action, Environment, Energy, Mobility, Innovation and Technology and Martin Kocher, Minister for Labour.

A climate assembly for the Netherlands

July 6, 2022

On Monday 4 July, the Dutch Cabinet announced its wish to launch a Climate Assembly and requested collaboration from Parliament to ensure that the right preconditions would be in place, such as having clarity about what will happen to citizens’ recommendations. KNOCA looks forward to working with Dutch officials and other stakeholders to learn lessons from previous assemblies and to ensure the robustness of the process.

Special news: KNOCA one year review

June 30, 2022

This June, KNOCA turned one year, which was celebrated with an annual meeting. To review our first year and to evaluate all of your experiences, this page includes a state of the union from Chair of KNOCA Graham Smith, access to a mural containing ideas and inputs from the annual meeting as well as a survey with the purpose to evaluate the past year and improve the network going forward.

Spain’s Citizen’s Assembly for the Climate finishes its deliberations

May 27, 2022

Last weekend, the Spanish Citizen’s Assembly for the Climate held its last session, voting and approving 172 recommendations for a fairer and secure Spain in the face of climate change.The Assembly has met over the past seven months in a mix of online and face-to-face sessions. It broke into five workstreams which each generated recommendations: consumption; food and land use; work; community, health and care; and ecosystems.

Call for papers on citizens' assemblies in times of crisis

May 20, 2022

Innovation: The European Journal of Social Science Research is looking for proposals for papers for its special issue on “Citizens assemblies in times of crisis”Citizens' assemblies and other sortition-based participation methods are trending around the world as a means to involve citizens directly in political decision-making. But can citizens’ assemblies contribute to problem-solving in the event of a crisis?

SAVE THE DATE: KNOCA's first annual meeting June 28

May 6, 2022

It has soon been a whole year since KNOCA launched!To take stock of the network’s activities, share knowledge, and discuss the future of climate assemblies, we invite you to the KNOCA annual meeting. You will be able to network with our more than 500 members, gain insights on the urgency of climate assemblies from our keynote speaker (TBC).

Now it's up to us - new book making the case for climate assemblies

May 4, 2022

In her new book Nu is het aan ons (Now it’s up to us), Eva Rovers makes the case that climate policy should not be left to politics alone. A many-headed monster like climate change requires a many-headed approach. In the book, published in Dutch, Eva Rovers takes her readers on a journey across several European citizens’ assemblies to show that citizens are crucial to tackling the biggest challenges of our time – especially safeguarding the planet we live on.

Training Camp for Coordinators of Citizens' Assemblies

April 25, 2022

Marcin Gerwin and Zuzanna Nowak from the Center for Blue Democracy are organising a training camp for coordinators of citizens’ assemblies on 18-22 May 2022 in Prague. The Training Camp is a comprehensive course featuring both in-person and virtual components. It is intended for members of organizations and groups interested in designing and running citizens’ assemblies – with or without prior experience.

KNOCA Advisory Council announced

April 19, 2022

The Knowledge Network on Climate Assemblies (KNOCA) is delighted to announce the appointment of an Advisory Council to offer guidance on our strategic direction and potential opportunities for impact. The Advisory Council will be chaired by Laurence Tubiana, CEO of the European Climate Foundation, and former co-chair of the governance committee of the French Climate Assembly, France.

The impact of climate assemblies – two reports published

April 7, 2022

A more systematic understanding of the impact of climate assemblies is much needed. Assuming impact equates to the extent to which recommendations of assemblies are implemented is too simplistic. Two reports published this week take up this challenge of more systematically understanding the range of impacts of assemblies.

Evaluation of Scotland’s Climate Assembly published

April 5, 2022

The Scottish Government has published a research report on Scotland's Climate Assembly. The evaluation report, published on 31 March 2022, was undertaken by civil servants from Scottish Government in collaboration with Dr Stephen Elstub from Newcastle University.

Ministerial Response to Jerseys Citizens' Assembly on Climate Change

April 4, 2022

Jersey's Minister for the Environment has published the Ministerial Response to the Citizens' Assembly on Climate Change Recommendations. This is the final official response the Jersey Citizens’ Assembly on Climate Change which published its recommendations in June 2021. The Assembly was tasked with answering the question: “How should we work together to become carbon neutral?”

How should environmental NGOs engage with climate assemblies?

March 17, 2022

Based on the experience of the Youth Regional Citizen’s Climate Assembly that recently took place in Estonia, this useful guide provides advice to climate NGOs on how to better engage with climate assemblies.

Scotland’s Climate Assembly in Final Session to Assess Government Response

February 2, 2022

Members of Scotland’s Climate Assembly will reconvene over the weekend of 4-6 February to take the innovative step of making a collective, informed assessment of the extent to which the Scottish Government’s response matches the ambition behind their recommendations. The weekend 8 programme is entirely online and features an opportunity for interested observers to join a live Q&A session that will reflect on the work of Scotland’s Climate Assembly, with a particular focus on the assembly’s process and future impact.

Climate assemblies- what’s cooking for 2022?

January 16, 2022

We seize the opportunity of this new year to review what has been cooking recently in the kitchen of climate assemblies and what our network will monitor and should be able to learn from.

Balearic Climate Assembly announced for the first half of 2022

December 16, 2021

The Balearic Islands will hold Spain’s first regional Climate Assembly. The formal announcement was made on Tuesday 14th of December by the Autonomous Community’s government, just a couple of days after the first official meeting of the Asamblea Ciudadana para el Clima run by the Spanish government, and whose recommendations are expected in spring 2022.

Call for papers for workshop "Can democratic innovations support environmental governance?"

December 6, 2021

Paper proposals are invited for the workshop "Can democratic innovations support environmental governance? Theoretical and empirical evidence of challenges and opportunities" as part of the Nordic Environmental Social Science Conference (NESS), University of Gothenburg, Sweden, June 7-9, 2022.

Youth Climate Assembly in Estonia starts its work

November 22, 2021

During November and December 2021, the first climate assembly in Estonia takes place in the north-eastern Ida-Viru county. What is different about this regional assembly is that its membership is limited to young people. The 40 randomly selected participants between 16 and 29 years will assess the Estonian Just Transition Plan with a particular focus on questions of justice.

Lead a KNOCA project – expressions of interest invited

November 8, 2021

KNOCA is seeking expressions of interest from network members to lead Knowledge Development Projects (KDPs) and smaller Mini-projects funded by the European Climate Foundation. To be successful as a network, it is important that KNOCA members are actively involved in the process of knowledge creation and exchange. KNOCA is therefore commissioning knowledge development projects (KDPs) in critical aspects of climate assembly practice along with smaller mini-grants.

First Global Climate Assembly launched today!

October 5, 2021

For the first time in history a global citizens’ assembly on climate change is being rolled out and was officially launched today. It introduces several innovations, such as a new, global sortition process and multilingual deliberation processes with very diverse groups of citizens from around the world. First results will be shared at COP26 in Glasgow.

Climate Assembly UK evaluations published

July 22, 2021

Two reports published today provide important insights into the workings and impacts of Climate Assembly UK and recommendations for future practice. Evaluation of Climate Assembly UK is the official evaluation report on CAUK, authored by Stephen Elstub, David M. Farrell, Jayne Carrick and Patricia Mockler. Citizens’ climate assemblies: understanding public deliberation for climate policy, produced by the Centre for Climate Change and Social Transformations, draws comparisons with the French Convention Citoyenne pour le Climate and the diverse local and regional assemblies and juries taking place across the UK.

Citizens' Assembly: Children have a say on climate

June 28, 2021

There are many citizens' assemblies with randomly selected adults. But now, for the first time, children were able to contribute their opinions in such an assembly. At the Climate Assembly in Scotland, the ideas of children from the age of 7 were in demand.

Scotland´s Climate Assembly report calls for "much more and much faster" program of action to tackle climate emergency

June 24, 2021

The full report of Scotland’s Climate Assembly was laid in the Scottish Parliament on Wednesday and will be formally handed over to party leaders at Holyrood today. It sets out 81 recommendations agreed by an overwhelming consensus of members for tackling the climate emergency in a fair and effective way. These recommendations cover a broad range of issues including domestic heating, emissions, environmental impact in public procurement, land use and agriculture, taxation, transport (including air travel) and the economy.