Project
Assembly for Climate Action
Client Federal Ministry for Climate Action, Environment, Energy, Mobility, Innovation and Technology (BMK)
Status/Duration completed
Background
The Climate Assembly was born out of the petition for a referendum on climate change in June 2020, which was supported by nearly 400,000 people. One of the core demands was to allow the Austrian people to actively participate in shaping climate protection measures. In March 2021, the National Council asked the federal government to implement the demands of the petition for a referendum on climate change – and the Climate Assembly was born.
Composition of the Climate Assembly
The Climate Assembly started with 100 people whose primary residence has been in Austria for at least five years. They all must have been at least 16 years old and represented a cross-section of Austria's society in terms of gender, age, level of education, income, and place of residence.
The people were selected by Statistics Austria using a random sample. In September 2021, the people who were selected received an information letter and were thus given the opportunity to register for the Climate Assembly. Following the analysis of a questionnaire, Statistics Austria finally selected 100 participants and 20 reserves from all of the registered people.
Climate Assembly Team and Schedule
Following a Europe-wide call for tenders, a consortium consisting of OEGUT, pulswerk (DE) and PlanSinn (DE) was commissioned with the entire organization, process support and moderation of the Climate Assembly.
The Climate Assembly met on a total of six weekends between January and June 2022 in Vienna and Salzburg.
Scientific Support
An essential part of the climate assembly´s work was strong scientific support: Climate researcher Georg Kaser and the environmental economist Birgit Bednar-Friedl took on a coordinating role and put together a multidisciplinary scientific support committee.
All documentation and information on the Citizens' Climate Assembly can be found at klimarat.org (DE).
Recommendations
At the beginning of July 2022, the citizens finally presented their recommendations and handed over the final report with 93 recommendations for climate policy measures to the government, parliament and the Federal President.
Each recommendation contains one measure. One of its great advantages of the Climate Assembly is that it was possible to discuss in moderated talks how measures should be designed in order to be accepted by a diverse population. Therefore, in addition to simple explanations of the measures, the recommendations also include ways of mitigating side effects and exploiting synergies.
Further Information
- Climate Assembly final report (DE)
- Filmic documentation: Review - This was the Citizens' Climate Council 2022 (DE)
- Citizens' Climate Assembly - Practical example on partizipation.at (DE)
- Method description: Citizens' Assembly (DE)
- Feedback on the recommendations of the Citizens' Climate Assembly (DE)
- Report on Civil Society Engagement (EN)
- Report on Civil Society Engagement - Short version (EN)