#21 · During the Assembly
How to make the CCAs a public concern? How facilitate dialogue between the public and the assembly? How to bring an assembly and its results into the public debate?
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CCAs often fail to meaningfully engage with broader communities, not because people lack interest, but because the process is invisible, inaccessible, or unresponsive. While CCA design and operation mostly focuses on influencing policymakers, and participants are carefully invited through sortition for legitimacy, less emphasis is placed on the wider public . Media coverage is key in enabling communities to follow and engage more deeply with the deliberative process and its outcomes. However, attention and outreach are often limited to isolated moments, press releases, final reports, or passive livestreams, rather than active dialogue, which hampers meaningful engagement.
This creates a legitimacy gap: if communities of interest are unaware of what is being decided, how it is decided, or how and when they can contribute, CCAs risk being perceived as irrelevant or elitist. Effective outreach makes the assembly’s mandate and process visible, understandable, and responsive, to everyone affected - not forceful, but accessible. For tackling climate change, in particular engagement is needed far beyond CCAs.
From the outset, permeable boundaries between participants and broader communities can be built in through open agoras, early planning and the dissemination of materials in various formats. This requires design capacities, a budget, time, spaces, and partner organisations.
To reach as many people as possible, the Austrian CCA used Pol.is which allowed wider communities of interest to contribute their views while the assembly was still deliberating, resulting in an increase in media coverage and public discussion. KNOCA Briefing No.12, 2024, p.11
Creating agoras by partnering with local media, libraries, schools, trade unions can help spread the message. At the French CCC participants themselves invited others to ‘Climate Aperitifs’ Ex:R Review
Participants can act as ambassadors communicating CCAs to their communities. TheConference of the Future of Europe prepared participants for outreach and public events.
Plain-language summaries, infographics, and/or short videos or livestreams with Q&As can make the on-going discussion accessible. Documentation of the Klimarat Austria; Assemblea Ciutadana pel Clima de Catalunya youtube channel
Assembling a media team, contacting journalists participant storytelling forCommunicating Climate Assemblies, enhances outreach and autenticiyDer Klimarat - Film ist da!
Reconvening the assembly to review progress or track the political uptake or mobilize public actions can increase the impact. The Climate Assembly UK, Reconvened, as well as the CCC France whos members formed Les 150 “L’Association des Citoyens de la Convention Climat,” a non-profit organisation, to continue monitoring measures.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RvNIrUVAqnk
Capstick, S., Demski, C., Cherry, C., Verfuerth, C. and Steentjes, K. (2020). Climate Change Citizens’ Assemblies. CAST Briefing Paper 03. https://orca.cardiff.ac.uk/id/eprint/131693/1/CAST-Briefing-03-Climate-Change-Citizens-Assemblies.pdf
Elstub, S., Carrick, J., Andrews, N., & Ivings, S. E. (2025). Climate assemblies and the public: An analysis of UK cases. Environmental Science & Policy, 172, 104187.
King, M., & Wilson, R. (2023). Local government and democratic innovations: reflections on the case of citizen assemblies on climate change. Public Money & Management, 43(1), 73–76. https://doi.org/10.1080/09540962.2022.2033462
KNOCA, 2024. The Impact of Climate Citizens’ Assemblies on Digital Media: The Cases of Austria, France, Scotland, Spain and UK, Briefing No.12. Authors: José Luis Fernández-Martínez, Coco Bates, Camerini Benedetta and Anja Salzer) https://cdn.prod.website-files.com/65b77644e6021e9021de8916/67ee5658860803ed0fc4b020_KNOCA%20Briefing%20No.%2012%20%20(4.25).pdf
