Deliberative democracy, where representative groups of citizens work with experts to develop proposals for tackling complex problems, is increasingly hailed as a potential tool to help develop the solutions to climate change.
In this report, we describe the outcome of our work with Britain Thinks on two pilot citizens’ juries, held in the spring of 2019, through which we explored the public mandate for action on climate change. Our findings show there is a strong public desire for the government to do more. However, this comes with caveats, including the need for assurances around the impact on individuals and the effective implementation of policy.
Based on our experience, we also list our recommendations to those running the proposed national citizens’ assembly on climate change and net zero. Among these, we highlight the need to give the process adequate time, allow participants to hear a range of perspectives and to commit to using the insights gained in setting future policy.
