The new Citizen Climate assembly is a deliberative process to gauge the needs and reflections of people in Barcelona first-hand and draft a series of recommendations and initiatives to tackle the climate crisis through public policies.
The first debate session at the Espai Jove La Fontana on Saturday, 17 September, should outline how the initiative will work. A hundred people aged between 16 and 75 have been chosen in a draw to take part, based on a pre-selection process of 20,000 people representing a socio-economic and demographic sample of the people of Barcelona. In the first session, experts and observers will be presenting the main areas of debate for the assembly and introducing other recent similar experiences, such as the Spanish citizen climate assembly.
The assembly will engage in further debates between October and November, working together and in small groups of a maximum of 10 people and taking part in training capsules on the climate emergency. Depending on the topics chosen in the sessions in September, specific exercises will be developed by the head team to drive and facilitate the sessions.
Finally, participants will work with the facilitating team to produce a document setting out recommendations for Barcelona City Council.
The closing session and vote on the proposals and recommendations from participants is due to be held in December. The chosen group of representatives will outline the final document with the proposed recommendations to tackle the climate crisis, to be conveyed to the city government and municipal groups.
The final document will be displayed on the municipal website, on the platform Decidim.barcelona and also in the regulated participation body, the Citizen Council for Sustainability, plus the working groups on climate change.
Barcelona thus becomes the first city in Catalonia and the Spanish state to set up a deliberative assembly on climate change at a local level, following international experiences such as the French climate assembly, the Scottish climate assembly and the Spanish citizen climate assembly. The Citizen Climate assembly is the second deliberative body of this type created by Barcelona City Council after the Fòrum Jove BCN.