DEMOCRACY AND SUSTAINABILITY

CRABBY INCREMENTALISM OR TRANSFORMATION?

We face a democratic tipping point in responding to the climate emergency as the choices of business as usual(no change) or incremental change can no longer command majority support. Global tipping points now demand urgent action at scale and urgency. Our systems of governance need to respond in parallel to this critical emergency. We now have abundant evidence of significant alterations to various global processes, involving melting of sea and mountain ice, shifts in, and warming of, oceanic currents, oceanic acidification, possible tundra melt, rainforest drying and latitudinal movements in monsoonal patterns. All these events are taking place now.

Globally, around 1,400 countries have declared a climate emergency and in the UK 250 councils have done the same, representing around 70% of the population. A decade ago, commentators rightly argued that there was no evidence of a democratic tipping point. Greta Thunberg and XR/Friday Strikes changed all of that! Back then there was, no common “enemy” (except, uncomfortably, us). We were carbon obsessed and dependent. Most of the electorate were still too unaware of the possible outcomes of not changing their cherished, carbon using, behaviour. We now have “internet democracy”, “citizen surveillance” of web-based scrutiny and activism, and the emergence of local sustainability politics. And, the emergence of new forms of democracy, like Citizens Assemblies/Jury’s.

Indeed, this weekend the first national citizens climate emergency assembly began its deliberations in Birmingham. It was commissioned by parliament not by the government. Expert evidence sessions can be watched live here: https://www.climateassembly.uk/. Its randomly selected members were selected from a mail out to 30,000 randomly selected UK citizens, from which a representative sample was chosen to make decisions on how to implement a zero carbon and more sustainable future.

Another example at local level is one created in Leeds last year. Between September and November 2019, twenty-five randomly selected residents from across the city region were recruited to take part in the first Leeds Climate Change Citizens’ Jury. The twenty-five were recruited through the delivery of four thousand letters across the city region. The profile of the jury membership reflected the diversity of the region’s population and is a mini version of Leeds. The group met for nearly thirty hours of deliberation over the course of eight weeks to answer the question ‘What should Leeds do about the emergency of climate change?’ The jury worked hard to listen to each other and to share experiences and opinions. Challenging each other and learning from each other. To help them, with their task, the jury received presentations from twenty-two ‘commentators’ (like expert witnesses in a legal jury), who they questioned or cross examined. In order to ensure the process was robust, fair and unbiased an Oversight Panel was formed to agree the recruitment methodology, the overarching question and the identity of the commentators. This panel met parallel to the jury and was made up of some twelve key local stakeholders (including the public, private and community sector), from the City Council to Extinction Rebellion. The Citizens’ Jury is an example of a deliberative process, like a Citizens’ Assembly, but smaller. It was commissioned by the Leeds Climate Commission and designed and facilitated by the social enterprise Shared Future.