Westminster City Council is convening the first ever Citizens’ Climate Assembly to tackle the climate emergency.
50 Westminster residents have been selected at random to attend assembly sessions and address the following:
- How can we overcome the main barriers to Westminster becoming a net zero city by 2040 together?
- How do we ensure this is delivered in the fairest way?
Members will attend four sessions between June and July 2023 to learn about climate issues, discuss them and make recommendations. These recommendations will then be reported to the council and will inform an updated version of our Climate Emergency Action Plan. The first sessions will take place this weekend, 24-25 June.
Citizens’ assemblies are a type of democratic decision-making process used across the world. A randomly selected group of people are bought together to learn about a topic, discuss with one another, and make recommendations about what should happen and how things should change. The people selected broadly represent the entire community.
Over 10,000 randomly selected addresses received a postal invitation to register to take part in the assembly. 50 people were then selected by lottery to take part in the event.
Cllr Matt Noble, Cabinet Member for Climate Action, Regeneration and Renters, said:
“One of the toughest challenges we face is tackling the climate emergency, and we’re working together with residents and businesses to meet our goal of a Net Zero Westminster by 2040.
“We’re very excited to be convening the first ever Westminster Citizens’ Climate Assembly this weekend, bringing together representatives from our communities and empowering them to make recommendations on how we break through the barriers to reaching net zero in the fairest way possible.”
Published: 23 June 2023