Climate
Citizens
Assemblies*

Climate change adaptation and mitigation are among the most pressing challenges facing all living beings today. Addressing the causes and consequences of the climate crisis requires systemic change with lasting, transformative effects, and goes far beyond individual action.

Climate Citizens’ Assemblies (CCAs) bring together a diverse group of citizens, selected by a stratified lottery process, to learn about climate issues, deliberate collectively, and produce joint recommendations.

This pattern language shares complex knowledge about CCAs in an accessible and actionable way. The patterns can be used by initiators, facilitators, and participants alike — a living tool, not a definitive collection, but an instrument to look at CCAs.

A social-ecological design lens

While most scholarship assesses CCAs through political science or public-policy lenses, we go a step further by viewing CCAs through a social-ecological design lens — both analytically and operationally. We consider not only policy outputs, but also the relationships, practices and ideas that shape future-making processes within CCAs.

What if Climate Citizens’ Assemblies were not just tools for public consultation, but emancipatory spaces for reimagining society itself — spaces to share knowledge, make decisions, and care for communities and environments together?