Practitioner’s guide for local stakeholder consultation

The document outlines a nine-step process for stakeholder consultation in climate mitigation actions, emphasizing the need to move beyond 'top-down' approaches to avoid adverse impacts like population displacement. It integrates international standards, including the right to free, prior and informed consent (FPIC) for indigenous peoples, and provides checklists for project developers to verify that consultations are inclusive, transparent, and accountable. The guide is designed for policy-makers, investors, and developers, drawing on lessons from the Clean Development Mechanism (CDM).

• Stakeholder consultations in climate mitigation have historically been insufficient, often being 'top-down' or non-existent, which has contributed to adverse impacts such as the privatisation of natural resources and the displacement of populations.
• Effective consultation is framed as a deliberative process rather than a single event, serving to build public trust, improve decision quality, and establish a 'social license to proceed' which is critical for project viability.
• For indigenous peoples and local communities, consultations must adhere to the principle of free, prior and informed consent (FPIC), meaning these groups have the right to deny consent for projects, particularly when impacts on rights are significant or involve forced eviction.
• The guide proposes a nine-step methodology for consultations: defining objectives, identifying stakeholders, choosing time/place, determining outreach, defining information format, defining consultation issues, establishing input means, analysing results, and monitoring the need for follow-up.
• To ensure inclusivity, project developers must proactively invite a broad spectrum of stakeholders, specifically including marginalised groups such as women, youth, the poor, ethnic minorities, LGBTQ community members, and disabled or elderly people.
• Procedural requirements for effective outreach include providing notice at least 30 days before a meeting and ensuring all communications are available in local languages and accessible to illiterate populations via oral means like local radio.
• Project developers are required to establish robust grievance mechanisms and provide information on independent recourse options, such as the national judiciary system, to address community-based grievances.
• Follow-up consultations are mandatory if project modifications change the scope, intensity, or type of impacts on stakeholders, or if new stakeholders are affected.

APA

Filzmoser, E., & Dufrasne, G. (2018). Practitioner’s guide for local stakeholder consultation. Carbon Market Watch. https://carbonmarketwatch.org/wp-content/uploads/2018/04/PRACTITIONERS-GUIDE-FOR-LOCAL-STAKEHOLDER-CONSULTATION-OF-CLIMATE-MITIGATION-ACTIONS-ENGLISH-FINAL-PRINT.pdf

Chicago

Filzmoser, Eva, and Gilles Dufrasne. Practitioner’s guide for local stakeholder consultation. Carbon Market Watch, 2018. https://carbonmarketwatch.org/wp-content/uploads/2018/04/PRACTITIONERS-GUIDE-FOR-LOCAL-STAKEHOLDER-CONSULTATION-OF-CLIMATE-MITIGATION-ACTIONS-ENGLISH-FINAL-PRINT.pdf.

Wikipedia

{{cite report |last1=Filzmoser |first1=Eva |last2=Dufrasne |first2=Gilles |title=Practitioner’s guide for local stakeholder consultation |publisher=Carbon Market Watch |date=April 2018 |url=https://carbonmarketwatch.org/wp-content/uploads/2018/04/PRACTITIONERS-GUIDE-FOR-LOCAL-STAKEHOLDER-CONSULTATION-OF-CLIMATE-MITIGATION-ACTIONS-ENGLISH-FINAL-PRINT.pdf |access-date=23 October 2026 |via=Climate Insights Directory}}

BibTeX

@techreport{filzmoser2018practitioners, author = {Filzmoser, Eva and Dufrasne, Gilles}, title = {{Practitioner’s guide for local stakeholder consultation}}, institution = {Carbon Market Watch}, year = {2018}, month = apr, url = {https://carbonmarketwatch.org/wp-content/uploads/2018/04/PRACTITIONERS-GUIDE-FOR-LOCAL-STAKEHOLDER-CONSULTATION-OF-CLIMATE-MITIGATION-ACTIONS-ENGLISH-FINAL-PRINT.pdf}, urldate = {2026-10-23}, note = {Indexed by Climate Insights Directory} }