How the ‘climate assembly’ says the UK should reach net-zero

The membership of the Climate Assembly was selected to be representative of the UK in terms of age, gender, ethnicity, education, rural versus urban, geography and level of concern about climate change. Credit: Fabio De Paola / PA.

By Carbon Brief, 10th September 2020

In January 2020, more than 100 randomly selected members of the public met in a secret location in Birmingham to begin taking part in the UK’s first “climate assembly”.

Lasting five months, the assembly asked citizens to listen to advice from climate experts before coming up with a list of recommendations for how the country should reach net-zero emissions by 2050.

The assembly’s final report, published today, recommends changes across a broad range of sectors, from meat-and-dairy consumption and air travel through to zero-carbon heating and electricity generation.

My Comment; The call for more participatory decision making through citizens assemblies is getting louder. The Climate Assembly provides a good pilot for this. The assembly was set up on the initiative of parliamentary committees ‘to provide input to future select committee activity and inform political debate and government policy making.” This article from Carbon Brief summarises the assemblies’ key recommendations. I will be monitoring developments to see whether the assembly turns out to be simply another ‘talking shop’ - an exercise in appeasement - or whether its recommendations find their way into law and policy.