Guía para el diseño, organización y facilitación de asambleas ciudadanas climáticas

The document outlines a comprehensive approach to implementing climate citizens' assemblies, emphasizing deliberative democracy to generate public policy recommendations. It details a five-phase process—preparation, learning, reflection/deliberation, recommendation drafting, and decision-making—while highlighting the importance of independent governance, inclusive participant selection, and the use of specific facilitation techniques to ensure balanced participation. The guide also provides practical tools for managing virtual and physical sessions, ensuring accessibility for diverse populations, and maintaining the anonymity of participants to protect the integrity of the deliberative process.

• A climate citizens' assembly is defined as a deliberative democracy exercise using a representative sample of citizens to provide public policy recommendations to governments and parliaments regarding the climate emergency.
• The guide identifies three primary objectives for any citizen participation process: achieving a specific result (such as climate policy recommendations), the pedagogical value of the process for participants and society, and the care and well-being of the people involved.
• Effective governance requires an independent and transparent structure to ensure the process remains autonomous from the promoting entity. Examples from Spain include the use of independent coordination panels, multidisciplinary expert groups, and specialized technical teams for selection, facilitation, and communication.
• The deliberative process is structured into five non-linear, iterative phases: Preparation (Phase 0), Learning and Knowledge (Phase 1), Reflection and Deliberation (Phase 2), Preparation of Recommendations (Phase 3), and Decision Making (Phase 4), followed by communication and follow-up (Phase 5).
• To ensure high-quality recommendations, the guide suggests a 'bottom-up' approach starting with a brainstorm of ideas, grouping them into objectives, and refining them with expert feedback on technical quality and political impact without experts drafting the proposals themselves.
• Accessibility and inclusion are critical for the legitimacy of the process. Recommended measures include providing financial support for care (children/elderly), ensuring physical and digital accessibility, using inclusive language, and addressing the emotional impact of climate change information.
• The guide emphasizes a tension between transparency and participant privacy. In the Spanish state-level assembly, anonymity was maintained until the final presentation of recommendations to protect the independence and objectivity of the deliberation.
• Facilitation is based on three pillars: the care of objectives (results), the care of the process (methods), and the care of people (emotions and relationships). Facilitators must remain detached from the content to avoid imposing their own viewpoints.
• To maintain balanced participation in large groups, the guide recommends dividing participants into smaller sub-groups (e.g., groups of 10) to facilitate interaction and reduce the fear of intervening.

APA

Piñeiro, C., & González, L. L. (n.d.). Guía para el diseño, organización y facilitación de asambleas ciudadanas climáticas. Basque Centre for Climate Change. https://info.bc3research.org/wp-content/uploads/2023/11/Guia-organizacion-y-facilitacion-Asambleas-climaticas_septiembre-23.pdf

Chicago

Piñeiro, Conchi, and Laura Lucio González. Guía para el diseño, organización y facilitación de asambleas ciudadanas climáticas. Basque Centre for Climate Change, n.d. https://info.bc3research.org/wp-content/uploads/2023/11/Guia-organizacion-y-facilitacion-Asambleas-climaticas_septiembre-23.pdf.

Wikipedia

{{cite report |last1=Piñeiro |first1=Conchi |last2=González |first2=Laura Lucio |title=Guía para el diseño, organización y facilitación de asambleas ciudadanas climáticas |publisher=Basque Centre for Climate Change |url=https://info.bc3research.org/wp-content/uploads/2023/11/Guia-organizacion-y-facilitacion-Asambleas-climaticas_septiembre-23.pdf |access-date=23 October 2026 |via=Climate Insights Directory}}

BibTeX

@techreport{pieirondgua, author = {Piñeiro, Conchi and González, Laura Lucio}, title = {{Guía para el diseño, organización y facilitación de asambleas ciudadanas climáticas}}, institution = {Basque Centre for Climate Change}, url = {https://info.bc3research.org/wp-content/uploads/2023/11/Guia-organizacion-y-facilitacion-Asambleas-climaticas_septiembre-23.pdf}, urldate = {2026-10-23}, note = {Indexed by Climate Insights Directory} }