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The Scope of Climate Assemblies: Lessons from the Climate Assembly UK

Author

Listed:
  • Stephen Elstub

    (Department of Politics, School of Geography, Politics and Sociology, Newcastle University, Newcastle NE1 7RU, UK)

  • Jayne Carrick

    (Department of Politics, School of Geography, Politics and Sociology, Newcastle University, Newcastle NE1 7RU, UK)

  • David M. Farrell

    (School of Politics and International Relations, University College Dublin, D04 V1W8 Dublin, Ireland)

  • Patricia Mockler

    (Department of Political Studies, Queens University, Kingston, ON K7L 3N6, Canada)

Abstract

In recent times we have seen a spate of climate assemblies across Europe as the climate emergency gains increasing prominence in the political agenda and as the citizens’ assembly approach to public engagement gains popularity. However, there has been little empirical research on how the scope of citizens’ assemblies affects the internal logic of the assembly process and its impacts on external policy actors. This is a significant oversight given the power of agenda setting. It is also of particular importance for climate assemblies given the exceptional scale and complexity of climate change, as well as the need for co-ordination across all policy areas and types of governance to address it. In this paper, we start to address this gap through an in-depth case analysis of the Climate Assembly UK. We adopt a mixed methods approach, combining surveys of the assembly members and witnesses, interviews with the assembly members, organisers, MPs, parliamentary staff, and government civil servants, and non-participant observation of the process. We find that attempts to adapt the assembly’s scope to the scale of the climate change issue compromised assembly member learning, the co-ordination of the resulting recommendations, assembly member endorsement of the recommendations, and the extent of their impact on parliament and government. We argue that more democratization in setting the agenda could help combat these issues.

Suggested Citation

  • Stephen Elstub & Jayne Carrick & David M. Farrell & Patricia Mockler, 2021. "The Scope of Climate Assemblies: Lessons from the Climate Assembly UK," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 13(20), pages 1-17, October.
    • Handle: RePEc:gam:jsusta:v:13:y:2021:i:20:p:11272-:d:654905
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    References listed on IDEAS

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    1. Rebecca Sandover & Alice Moseley & Patrick Devine-Wright, 2021. "Contrasting Views of Citizens’ Assemblies: Stakeholder Perceptions of Public Deliberation on Climate Change," Politics and Governance, Cogitatio Press, vol. 9(2), pages 76-86.
    2. Lala Muradova & Hayley Walker & Francesca Colli, 2020. "Climate change communication and public engagement in interpersonal deliberative settings: evidence from the Irish citizens’ assembly," Climate Policy, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 20(10), pages 1322-1335, November.
    3. Katariina Kulha & Mikko Leino & Maija Setälä & Maija Jäske & Staffan Himmelroos, 2021. "For the Sake of the Future: Can Democratic Deliberation Help Thinking and Caring about Future Generations?," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 13(10), pages 1-13, May.
    4. Laura Devaney & Pat Brereton & Diarmuid Torney & Martha Coleman & Constantine Boussalis & Travis G. Coan, 2020. "Environmental literacy and deliberative democracy: a content analysis of written submissions to the Irish Citizens’ Assembly on climate change," Climatic Change, Springer, vol. 162(4), pages 1965-1984, October.
    5. Daniel Oross & Eszter Mátyás & Sergiu Gherghina, 2021. "Sustainability and Politics: Explaining the Emergence of the 2020 Budapest Climate Assembly," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 13(11), pages 1-13, May.
    6. Candice Howarth & Peter Bryant & Adam Corner & Sam Fankhauser & Andy Gouldson & Lorraine Whitmarsh & Rebecca Willis, 2020. "Building a Social Mandate for Climate Action: Lessons from COVID-19," Environmental & Resource Economics, Springer;European Association of Environmental and Resource Economists, vol. 76(4), pages 1107-1115, August.
    7. Jennifer J. Roberts & Ruth Lightbody & Ragne Low & Stephen Elstub, 2020. "Experts and evidence in deliberation: scrutinising the role of witnesses and evidence in mini-publics, a case study," Policy Sciences, Springer;Society of Policy Sciences, vol. 53(1), pages 3-32, March.
    8. Rebecca Wells & Candice Howarth & Lina I. Brand-Correa, 2021. "Are citizen juries and assemblies on climate change driving democratic climate policymaking? An exploration of two case studies in the UK," Climatic Change, Springer, vol. 168(1), pages 1-22, September.
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    2. Áine Regan & Ursula Kenny, 2022. "What Do the Public Want to Know about Farming and Why? Findings from a Farmer-Initiated Public Consultation Exercise in Ireland," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 14(9), pages 1-18, April.

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