READ CATALAN VERSION
This November we enter the final stretch of the process to establish the Citizen Climate Assembly of Catalonia, a new democratic instrument that will allow citizens to debate the challenges that Catalonia faces in the face of climate change and formulate proposals to address them. .
During the month of October, 20,000 invitations, chosen at random, were sent throughout the country to register on the citizen participation portal of the Generalitat of Catalonia. The chosen people were able to register until the end of October, using the form available on the portal, with the personal code that appeared in the letter they had received. Now, this November, a draw will be held among the registered people to make the final selection of the hundred assembly members who will make up this innovative project of deliberative democracy and citizen participation.
The Generalitat has worked with the Institut d'Estadística de Catalunya and the company Sortition Foundation to ensure that diverse profiles of Catalan society will be represented in terms of gender, age, levels of study, territory and origin. Specifically, the project is promoted by the General Directorate of Environmental Quality and Climate Change - through the Catalan Office of Climate Change -, the Department of Climate Action, Food and Rural Agenda, and the General Directorate of Good Governance, Innovation and Quality Democratic, from the Department of the Presidency, which provides knowledge on citizen participation. These people will meet on Saturday, November 18, the day the Assembly will be established.
The work of the Assemblea will be public in nature and will be carried out through sessions that will be organized in a training phase, where attendees will be provided with the information and training necessary to prepare their deliberations and a phase of deliberation and preparation of recommendations. The sessions will take place over six Saturdays, between the inaugural session on November 18, 2023 and the final session on February 10, 2024. Five of these sessions will be in person and will take place in Barcelona, Tarragona, Vic, Lleida and Girona.
To participate, it is not necessary to have prior knowledge about climate change. The sessions will have the support of experts in different fields who will share their knowledge, and with a facilitation team that will facilitate and support the participants. Whoever is part of the Assemblea will receive financial compensation of 65 euros for each Saturday of the session and will be provided with transportation, catering, accommodation or care services, if necessary.
The deliberations and proposals will focus on how to confront the climate emergency in two specific aspects: the deployment of renewable energies and the agri-food production and consumption model. The ambition is to improve, complement and innovate in the possibilities of incorporating citizens in the development of the Generalitat's public policies and contribute to generating knowledge and awareness of the challenges of the climate emergency in Catalonia.
The purpose of the Assembly is to prepare recommendations on political dilemmas such as what criteria should be used to decide or prioritize the type of renewable energy or what changes should be undertaken in relation to the agri-food production and consumption model to mitigate emissions and encourage measures. adaptation to climate change.
The Government of the Generalitat will analyze the recommendations prepared by the Assembly and will assess their incorporation into the public policies of the Generalitat. Subsequently, it will make a return, both to the Assembly and to the general public, in which it will report on which recommendations and how they have been incorporated, and which have been excluded and the reasons for their exclusion.
Those people interested in this initiative who have not been selected to be part of the Assemblea may send their proposals to the citizen participation portal of the Generalitat de Catalunya. Although they are not part of the Assembly's recommendations, these proposals will also be included and will complement the final results reports of the Assembly.
This is the first citizen assembly of its kind launched by the Government of Catalonia.
The creation of this mechanism of democracy and deliberative citizen participation was announced last year by the president of the Generalitat, Pere Aragonès i Garcia, during his participation in Climate Week in New York, as a mechanism for citizen participation, following the example of countries such as Scotland, Austria, Ireland, Germany, France or the United Kingdom. It joins other bodies created and designed for the scientific world and for organizations involved in the work of adaptation and mitigation to climate change such as the Comitè d'Experts on the Canvi Climàtic or the Social Taula of the Canvi Climàtic.
